AvaRuto
by rubyhardflames
Summary: A young firebender encounters a scroll thinking it holds the secret to redirecting lightning. When it contains nothing but strange writing and weird hand signs, the result lands her in a strange place filled with even stranger people. (OC, slow build longfic. Artwork available on Ao3)
1. Scroll One: Fire

**A/N** This is a remake of a fanfiction I wrote back when I was 11. Gods, was I cringy then. I planned the whole thing with my friends and their OC's, all that middle school jazz. I've been obsessing over it at the back of my mind lately so here's hoping I do it some justice 11 years later. To enjoy it (if it is at all possible to be enjoyed) I suggest being knowledgeable in the events of Naruto Pt. 1 and most of the Avatar: Last Airbender series. Will edit the summary when I can think of something better.

That being said, I do not own the Naruto or A:TLA franchises.

PS: Guys, if you ever read this, sorry for cutting your OC's out. It's been a long time and I reinvented the whole thing differently.

* * *

A high, keening sob carries on the wind, ebbing and flowing over the smoke and ice, barely audible through the droves of flurried sleet–

"Mama...Mama, please...please don't leave me..."

The hunched little figure is so small and pathetic, shivering in the blizzard despite the thick coat. The sobbing continues as the child clings desperately to the remnants of her mother's broken body. Footsteps suddenly approach from behind, crunching frighteningly close through the wartorn snow.

The sobbing ceases in an instant as the fur-lined head turns ever so slightly. Eyes widen. "F-Fire Nation...!" She whirls around, assumes a fighting stance. "Stay away!"

"Last I checked, little girls weren't allowed to waterbend here," the intruder speaks. He is big and tall and armored. His face is hidden in the wind.

"I don't care!" She throws off her gloves without hesitation. "I won't let you touch Mama!"

He strides forward anyway, unafraid. She freezes, suddenly hesitant, and watches as he kneels by her mother's body. His hands reach beneath the dead woman's hood to turn the cold cheeks upward. He stares awhile at the face, the lifeless eyes glazed and skyward.

Realization settles in – he has touched her Mama. Her little voice cracks as she shrieks at him with renewed determination, "I said, s-stay away!"

The man raises his head, bringing up an armored wrist in time to block the elemental attack, hot and searing..." _Fire_." He snatches up the wrist of her still-smoking hand and pierces her with the intensity of his burning amber eyes. "You're a firebender."

"Let me go!" the child wails, thrashing in his grasp.

"The Water Tribe is no place for a firebender."

"Koda! _Koda_!" But no Koda comes. She is dragged away helplessly. "Let me go! Mama!"

"Your mother is dead. You are coming with me now."

"No!"

"You will do exactly as I say..." He turns those angry eyes on her again. "...because I am your _father_."

And then the curtains are thrust aside, the blinding sunrays flashing gold through the blizzard and melting that horrible, angry face into an amorphous blob. The disastrous scene of snowy warfare recedes back into memory and becomes nothing more as her eyes crack open to the calm serenity of her bedroom.

"Young mistress, it's time for you to wake up."

* * *

 _Not that nightmare again..._

The headmistress was giving her yearly graduation speech in that typical droning, nasally tone of hers, but nothing bothered Fan more than having to endure _that_ coupled with the restlessness of having had the nightmare. It had already ruined her entire morning; four years since, and she couldn't seem to get it out of her head.

"...as you all become the bright beacons of hope for the future of the Fire Nation, the young shoots of bamboo that will bring our country to greatness..."

" _Psst_ ," a voice hissed to her right. Fan turned to the girl next to her. "Her topknot flame is upside-down."

"Ch-Chuni," Fan hissed back, suppressing a giggle.

"What? Can't you see it?"

"I see it! Shh!"

"...made possible by all your families, and their loyal service to the Fire Lord; dedicate yourselves thus, and you will be greatly rewarded..."

" _I_ think she needs to be less cranky," Chuni interjected. "Maybe then she wouldn't look half as constipated."

"Chuni!"

"...and now, we turn to the students who have shown excellence time and again throughout their studies. This year, we are proud to present an award of honor sponsored by the Royal Family. Honor their name and thank your ancestors should you be chosen, for an award like this is equivalent to praise from the Fire Lord himself. Please come up to receive it when your name is called."

A younger woman with a scroll unfurled it and began to read the names one by one. The awards started with the first years, the youngest of all the girls, and slowly worked their way up to the fourth years.

"–Leung Chuni–"

Chuni gasped and gripped Fan's forearm involuntarily. After an excited exchange of glances, she exited the aisle, and Fan could tell that she was fighting the urge to sprint to the dais.

"–Zhao Fan–"

Fan snapped back to awareness, eyes wide with surprise, and made her way to the dais as well.

* * *

"I can't believe it! Mother's going to be _sooooo_ proud!" Chuni's eyes sparkled as she squealed in delight. "Father will _have_ to buy me a new swallowgale now! Or even two! Isn't this great, Fan?"

Fan looked down at the bright orange badge gleaming on her sash and nodded. "I never thought I'd actually get an award!"

"What will your father get you, Fan? Isn't he coming home in a few days for his promotion?"

At the mention of her father, Fan's smile vanished. "Um, well...I'll have to see..."

"Aw," Chuni pouted. "That's no fun. It must be difficult having a military father, huh?"

"Sort of."

"But don't worry!" Chuni was quick to quip. "I've got something that'll _really_ make our families proud. Even your father will have to spoil you once he knows."

Fan paused to give her a curious, almost suspicious, glance. "What did you do this time...?"

She dug into her satchel and gave Fan a conspiratorial smile. "You didn't hear this from me, all right? I got this from a hawker down on Wuyang Lane..." She produced a thin, yellowed scroll and handed it to Fan with a whisper. "It contains the secret to redirecting lightning."

Fan let out a gasp as she handled the scroll, but fought to keep her awe down. Capped with rusted metallic ends, the roll of aged parchment weighed ominously in her hand. To think it might contain the coveted secret of the greatest firebenders in all the nation – "It might not even be real," she pointed out a moment later, deflated. "Hawkers will say anything to sell their wares."

"But how will you know if you don't _try_?" Chuni argued. "It looks pretty real to me. And you've always wanted to redirect lightning – don't you want to be as cool as Princess Azula?"

Fan bit down on her lower lip. The thought was tempting, she had to admit. It was every Royal Fire Academy student's dream to reach the heights of talent such as Princess Azula, who was renowned throughout the nation as a prodigy. Her skill was such that her fire burned blue, hotter than any fire most benders could generate. But most of all was the legendary lightning redirection technique, one of the most dangerous and rarest skills of all, yet something the princess managed to master at their age.

Fan reached a tentative hand for the seal and pried it open. With a prompting glance from Chuni, she unfurled the page and unrolled the scroll...

"Huh?" Fan gasped in bafflement. "What are these?"

An illustration of a human profile covered in blue lines, nonsensical hand gestures, a giant ellipse in the middle framed like a mirror, strange curly characters interspersed with regular ones – and upon further reading, it appeared as if those characters were archaic. Nothing that made any sense whatsoever.

"I was hoping you'd figure it out," explained Chuni, meeting Fan's confused gaze.

"Just because I do well on written exams doesn't mean I can read ancient text..."

"I know, I know! But it's worth a shot, isn't it? We have all of our break to figure it out."

 _Typical Chuni..._ always doing things before thinking them through. "Okay, fine," she relented. "I guess I'll try."

Chuni squealed again and gripped Fan in a fervent hug. "I knew you'd come through for me! Don't forget to tell me when you figure it out. Then we can be lightning sisters!"

Fan laughed and hugged her back. "All right, all right! I'll head over to your house the moment I have it done."

She stuffed the scroll into her own satchel as they pulled themselves apart. Sending Chuni an energetic wave, Fan made her way down the courtyard to the gates where the carriages were waiting.

* * *

Dinner that night was quiet, as always. Lady Yan sat at the head in Father's absence, sipping elegantly at her soup. Baojun and Xiuhua sat pompously on her right, while Fan ate directly across from Baojun, eyes focused on some distant point on the table.

"I heard you graduated this year with special honors," Lady Yan finally spoke, patting her mouth daintily with a napkin. A half-bowed servant slid in to take away her bowl, and as she laid the napkin neatly back on the table, a small dessert plate of fruit replaced the soup. "Father will be very pleased."

"Thank you, Mother," Fan replied with a nod.

"I have a new tunic laid out for you for the promotion ceremony," Lady Yan went on. "You should pin the badge to the sash." Turning to Baojun and Xiuhua, she smiled sweetly. "Are you all done with your soup, dears? I had the cook make your favorite sweet dumplings tonight. I've heard many great things from your firebending tutor, Jun. And Hua, you deserve it for the progress you've made this year in the Academy."

"Thank you, Mother," Baojun smiled back, eagerly handing his bowl away to another servant.

"Yes, sweet dumplings! You really know how to treat us, Mother," Xiuhua chimed in happily.

Fan rested her spoon against her bowl's edge and pushed away from the table. "If I may be excused, Mother – I am rather tired today."

"Of course," Lady Yan agreed absentmindedly, eyes focused on the other children. "You may go."

Fan bowed briefly before making her way down the halls of the manor. Once she reached her bedroom, she closed the door behind her and slid to her feet. _Mother._ The word felt so ironic, attached to Lady Yan. Fan picked the badge from her sash and held it up to her eye. _I_ _t's been four years to that day..._ or so she estimated. _The day I lost Mama..._ Who'd have thought she'd be accepting awards from Fire Nation academies today?

Speaking of which, there was the matter of the scroll. She got back to her feet, tossed the badge onto the bed, and pulled her satchel from its wall hook to retrieve the ancient parchment. She spread it out on the floor and studied it in all its strange glory.

"How does anyone even fit their hand like that?" she wondered aloud, and tried to mimic one of the gestures. It was a strange entanglement of the extended fingers in a cross pattern, some fingers held vertical and some horizontal. She angled her wrists this way and that, but couldn't seem to replicate the picture. "Why would this even be necessary for redirecting lightning?" She squinted at the old characters and tried to read the ones that weren't so alien. "Ox seal...? Cha...kura? What?"

Moving onto a different section of text, she discerned – however vaguely – that something called "chakura" should be used in the seals, which were to be performed in the order they were drawn before saying an incantation that she couldn't even read.

 _This is so weird._ She re-rolled the scroll and stuffed it back into her satchel. _I'll try again later._

* * *

"Later" proved to be late into the night, where she sat frustrated in her night robe trying to decipher the characters on the scroll using a textbook on old literature from the Academy. Success was hard to come by, and Fan suspected it would take longer than the typical break between school years to understand the scroll completely.

 _So this is 'elemental',_ she assumed, pointing at a cluster of three characters, _and this is supposed to be...a really old word for 'bridge'..._

She let out a yawn and rubbed her eyes. Her efforts had been focused in deciphering the incantation; there were other blocks of texts but she'd stopped bothering, as those were mostly made of the strange curly characters. A pity, for if they meant anything, she wouldn't be able to know. _Just f_ _our more characters to go_. She readjusted the positioning of her candle and continued working, one hand on the textbook and another on the scroll.

Somewhere along the way, she had blacked out on her desk. She only realized it when she awoke to a baritone "Hmm" uttered behind her, deep and familiar. "Fa...Father?" She raised her sleepy head and turned around. "O-Oh, Father! You've returned!"

Fan quickly jumped off her chair to stand at attention. As she did so, she realized her father was reading the strange scroll and clenched a nervous fist.

"Favorable winds carried the ship home early," he explained as he straightened. "And I hear you've earned a badge at the Academy. Very good, Fan. That is what I expect of you to make our family proud."

"Thank you, Father," she accepted with a bow of her head.

"Do you see the potential that would have been wasted had I left you in that place?"

Fan swallowed. "Yes, Father."

"Good." He nodded, and his eyes wandered over to her desk again. "It seems you're still studying. What is it this time?"

Fan felt her heart skip a beat as she thought of what to say. "It's some old literature Chuni and I decided to study together," she lied. "She picked it out from her family's library. I, um...I volunteered to read it first."

She almost expected some sort of frowning interrogation, but he never gave it. "You can continue that in the morning," he stated. "Get some rest."

Fan sighed in relief after he left the room. Perhaps it _was_ a good thing he was a military father, after all. If he'd known what the scroll truly said, the surprise would be ruined–

But then again, neither did she.

* * *

"What's _that_?"

"Xiuhua!" Fan gasped as she jolted in her seat. "Didn't I tell you to knock before entering my room?"

"You've been in there for _hours_ ," Xiuhua groaned, leaning against the desk. "The school year is over and you're _still_ studying? Gosh, you're so boring."

Fan blushed in embarrassment as she untangled her fingers from yet another attempt to replicate the hand signs. "What do you want this time? You usually don't come into my room for nothing."

"I want to see your badge."

"No, Xiuhua, I have to keep it spotless for the ceremony."

"So what? I'm not gonna spoil it or anything."

"The last time I handed something for you to 'see', you lost it."

"Did not!"

"Did too, and Mother got upset at me for–"

" _Hua_!" Baojun's voice echoed from the hallway. "Mother wants us down in the tearoom! Father's home early!"

Xiuhua's demeanor changed almost instantly. "Father's home?" she screamed back, and ran out the room. "Why didn't you tell me sooner!?"

Fan opened her mouth to say something, decided against it, and turned back to the scroll. _Two years my junior, and she acts like she's my upperclassman._ To top it off, Baojun was a cold and arrogant older brother who enjoyed bossing them both. It would have given her a lot of satisfaction to reveal that she knew Father had come home first, but there was nothing to be gained in acting as though she held Father's favor. Lady Yan had proved time and again that that was a bad idea.

 _Guess I'll go too,_ Fan decided, closing the scroll.

She arrived at the tearoom to find Father sitting next to a beaming Lady Yan, their children seated on either side of them. "Ah, Fan," Lady Yan said as her eyes wandered to the girl in the doorway. "You're late."

"Sorry, Mother," she apologized with a bow and headed over to a seat by Baojun. "I was–"

"She was reading some sort of weird scroll," Xiuhua tattled.

"–studying," Fan finished.

Lady Yan pursed her lips, but luckily for Fan, that was all she deigned to do. She turned to her husband instead and smiled at him. "Tell us of the victory that earned you the promotion," she urged.

Father cracked a smile, a rare occasion that meant good tidings. "The Earth Kingdom vessel was coming up on our aft, trying to push us between two crags..."

They listened, enraptured, to his harrowing tale of the naval battle that took place off the northwestern Earth Kingdom coast. His ship had been separated from the rest of the fleet, but managed to turn the tide against the Earth Kingdom's in an expert maneuver that pushed the Earth vessel instead into the crags. That left the Earth fleet formation open for a piercing breakthrough, and the rest was followed by naval jargon Fan could not really understand, but she couldn't help feeling some budding admiration as Father finished his tale.

"Commander Zhao," Baojun murmured thoughtfully. "That's how they'll announce you from now on."

"My father is a Commander now!" Xiuhua cheered.

" _Naval_ Commander," Baojun corrected matter-of-factly.

Father smiled again. "And it won't stop there. Just watch, children; from Captain, to Commander, and soon...Admiral." His eyes glimmered fervently at the last word, deep amber like flickering fire, and he rested a hand on Baojun's shoulder. "This is what greatness looks like. This is how you succeed...though you may start small, you push, and push, until you've grown from a simple flame into a raging wildfire. That is how all the great people in our nation did it –" His eyes swept over the three of them. "– and I expect for you to do the same."

"Yes, Father," they chimed in unison, although Fan wondered what that had meant for Mama.

* * *

The next few days passed in a flurry of activity. With the ceremony looming close, it was essential to Lady Yan that everything was absolutely _perfect_ , because this time Father would receive the appointment from the Fire Lord himself. The role of Commander came along with taking charge of a strategic naval base at the southwestern edge of the Earth Kingdom; Father would be away from home for long periods of time again, but it was a great responsibility to shoulder, and the ceremony would reflect that gravity.

Fan had less time to study the scroll as a result, occupied as she was by the preparations. But before she would retire for the night, she would sneak in a little studying, if it could be helped. The incantation was more or less done, although Fan was rather uncertain on the translations of one or two characters. She had some of the easier hand signs down, but still couldn't wrap her hands around the more complex ones.

The day of the ceremony finally came. Fan put on the tunic Lady Yan gave her, tied the sash, and pinned the Academy's badge to it. As she looked herself over in the mirror, she adjusted her clothing accordingly and reached for a hair tie.

 _Wait...I think the index finger shouldn't be as bent for that sign as I thought..._

She paused at the mirror and turned back to look at her bed, where the scroll lay open on the surface of her blankets. Frowning, she paced over to it, knowing full well that the ceremony was far more important. But it was such a nagging thought that she feared forgetting it in the midst of the service and losing it forever.

 _Okay, so the fingers go like this..._ She enclosed her hands around each other again for the umpteenth time. But this time her heart raced as she locked her index finger in the right position. _I think this works for the next sign, too!_ She tried it out, adjusting her index finger yet again, and felt like jumping for joy when it matched the picture perfectly.

The remaining hand signs seemed to flow perfectly from there. It was as if she had struck gold. Fan held her breath as she went back to the first hand sign and performed them in succession. When she finally reached the last one, she fought to keep her hands from shaking in excitement as she read out the incantation.

"Elemental Veil, Bridging Souls Technique."

A flash seemed to pass through the mirror illustrated on the scroll. Before Fan could get a closer look, a bright beam of light shot out from the mirror and suddenly flashed through the entire room. She yelped in surprise and shielded her eyes, and her ears were filled with the roaring of a great wind. Terrified, she screamed for help, but her voice was drowned out by the noisy gusts. When a servant ran in to see what the commotion was about...

...she had vanished.

* * *

 **Notes**

Supposing the scroll contains a mixture of hiragana and kanji, Fan's reading of 'jutsu' as 'technique' is due to the incantation being purely kanji and the fact that she is reading as someone with a more Chinese understanding of characters; plus, jutsu means technique/skill. I also think (but don't know, so don't quote me on it) that Chinese readers have some difficulty completely understanding kanji. I could be completely wrong either way, but will go with the openness of a fictional world or two.

Also, I'm aware of Fan's origin indicating that the Fire Nation made recent attempts to invade the Northern Water Tribe. While the wiki says the last time Northern warriors recovered Fire Nation armor was 85 years previous to the Gaang's arrival, I will assume for the sake of the fic that they made two more after a dry spell but were repulsed (one at her conception, another eight years later), which will be the buildup to the resulting siege at the end of ATLA season 1.


	2. Chapter 2

"Unngh..."

Spots flashed in Fan's eyes as she struggled to reopen them. She felt dizzy and weightless, as though suspended in midair. Her ears rang from pressure, but as it slowly subsided, it soon changed to a low susurrus of voices. She blinked and squinted through the flashing spots, trying to see where she was. When she tried to rub her eyes, she realized she couldn't move her hands.

 _What...?_ Fan yanked at a hand, but found the wrist tightly locked in some sort of manacle. In a dazed panic she realized all her limbs were similarly locked, and that she was being held spread-eagled above the ground by some glowing contraption. All around her, the voices continued their chant, slowly increasing in volume until their foreign words buzzed horribly in her ears. She whipped her head from side to side and found dark-robed figures kneeling around a circular pattern which she was at the center of.

"Let me go!" she screamed, and pulled from her binds in frustration. If the figures heard her, they did not show it; their chants continued undisturbed. She pushed fire through her fists in an attempt to melt or cut the binds, or whatever she could do to free herself, but that proved fruitless as well.

Panic rose in her chest as a burst of flame suddenly erupted beneath her. She struggled to pull herself away, but the effort only exhausted her further. She shut her eyes helplessly as the fire rose before her in a raging column, drying her breath with intolerable humidity. Then it fell upon her, crashing into her tiny frame like an angry wave stirred by storm. Heat flowed through every pore, every vein, sparing nothing to the intensity of its wrathful course.

It was only barely that she registered the unlocking of her manacles and the spiraling descent to the ground below, before her consciousness sank into nothingness.

* * *

"Finally! After all this time, we've obtained a Vessel."

"Is it...truly? Or did we just kill a little girl?"

"Nonsense! You saw the Beast rise from the circle...Come, let's take her back and hope the others are as successful with the remaining Beasts."

They waited until the veil of flames subsided before daring to step beyond the boundaries of the summoning circle. Once a usable path was cleared, the Vessel's outline could be traced against the dancing light, standing pristine and still as though no such ordeal had ever occurred in the first place.

"So it _did_ work," another one of them breathed.

"Didn't I say so? Now hurry up and–"

The Vessel's head perked up at the noise. Before they could say anything else, she suddenly opened her mouth and shot a blast of fire at two of their comrades. The men screamed briefly in agony as fire seared their flesh, and when it dissipated, there was nothing of them left but piles of ashes.

"Shit!"

The figures split apart to avoid being in the Vessel's direct path. Whirring shuriken spun at her, which she whirled away to dodge. She lowered herself into a fighting stance and punched another roaring blast that sealed the fate of another colleague. A second barrage of shuriken was sent her way from the trees, forcing her to fall and roll to avoid them. Turning sharply, as if scenting something, the Vessel shot up and ran in the direction of the shuriken, blasting the tree to fiery oblivion with an angry blow.

As the others attempted to flee or strike back, the Vessel targeted them with raging abandon, shooting them down with great whorls of fire. Precision and accuracy were nonexistent, the movements directed instead by blinded fury and recklessness. The dark clearing about them was soon ablaze with flame and smoke, which threatened to spill into the surrounding forest.

"What's going on!?" one of the remaining figures screamed.

"I don't know!"

"The Beast," another surmised through a cough. "It must be the Beast–"

Another fiery attack shot in between them, and reminded of the dire situation, they started taking more action. Jumping back into the perches of some tree branches, they focused the chakra in their stomachs to prepare for a counteractive jutsu.

Hand signs blurred frantically in the dark. "Water Release: Water Bomb Jutsu!" From three different mouths, jets of water gushed into the summoning circle. The Vessel turned at the sound of rushing water and swept an arm in retaliation, sending a thick wave of fire that met the water with a hissing splutter of steam. From the opposite side, another colleague had begun to do the same.

The clearing clouded up with steam, obscuring sight save for the faint orange glow of the embers in the circle. Once everything had grown quiet did they dare to release their water jutsu. With bated breath, they covered their faces as they waited for the steam to dissolve. Then they would go down to detain the Vessel before the Beast could rear its head again and be on their way.

But they realized with sinking stomachs that the summoning circle was dry.

In the midst of their surprise, the Vessel launched another devastating blast at the three hidden in the trees. As the leaves and branches crumbled away into ash, the last remaining figure turned tail and dashed into the forest, leaping from branch to branch to get as far away from the cursed clearing as possible.

The Vessel whipped around in his direction. She folded her pinky and ring fingers beneath her thumb, leaving index and middle pointed upwards. Forming her other hand in the same manner, dancing tendrils of electricity began to crackle at the tips. She lowered herself into stance, and with one arm extended behind her as a counterweight, she thrust a hand forcefully in his direction to let loose a screeching streak of lightning.

* * *

 _So...heavy...can't breathe..._

Fan gasped as though choked and felt her body waver. Her heartbeats echoed in her ears, and as her blurred sight returned to her, she saw what looked like a bolt of light snaking through the trees. Crashing and hissing noises pounded faintly about her as her arms slumped to her sides and her knees turned to jelly. As the world continued to topple and burn, all she could do was give in to the compelling force that brought her face down to meet with the ground.

* * *

"Well, damn," Asuma swore. "This place looks like a disaster."

The only good thing about it, Kurenai supposed, was that it could be spotted from miles away.

Smoke from the aftermath still billowed in lazy puffs against the clear noon sky. If that wasn't enough of an indicator, the bright orange dot in the darkness from the night before had surely pointed them in the right direction.

"If it's erasing evidence this Veil cult wanted, then they've done a good job of it," Asuma remarked again. "Must've been something pretty freaky, though..."

Beside them, Inoichi Yamanaka paced into the ashen clearing and gave the place a sweeping glance. What once appeared to be a moderately sized clearing was now a gaping black hole, the trees reduced to darkened stumps and the ground blanketed with ash like dark snow. Kurenai and Asuma followed slowly behind him, keeping themselves on the alert for potential ambushes or other such traps.

"There," the Yamanaka clan head pointed. "A body."

Their eyes followed to the right and spotted a little shape lying prone on the black ground. Kurenai approached it while the men continued scoping the area. The approximate size of a pre-pubescent child, the body was dusted with soot but appeared otherwise unburnt. It was not the fire then, but the smoke inhalation that did it in. She knelt down beside it and flipped it onto its back to get a better look at the face.

 _So a female_. Not much older than her genin, either. Kurenai wondered briefly what village she had come from; the clothes were a bit elaborate, but strange. She reached for a wrist and found the limb compliant; _no rigor mortis_. Then the warmth of the skin made death seem less plausible. To be sure, she pressed two fingers against the radial artery. "I have a pulse," she called out to Asuma and Inoichi. "She's alive."

"Good," Asuma called back. "We won't be returning empty-handed."

With a grunt, Kurenai hefted the child onto her back. "Found anything else?"

"A scroll," Inoichi replied as he approached, dusting off an ash covered hand. Within it was the aforementioned scroll, lightly dusted with soot. "Perfectly intact too."

 _Interesting._ But it would be at least another day before they could make it back to Konoha. "Let's head someplace with fresh air," Kurenai said. "You'll want to extract whatever you can before we return; she's unresponsive and I don't feel much of a breath against my neck."

"Looks like we ought to hurry then," Asuma sighed.

Inoichi pocketed the scroll and turned to leave back down their line of travel; something caught his eye, however, and he swiveled back around with a frown. He squinted and pointed in the trees ahead. "Those scorch marks up there..." He traced the finger all the way back to the spot the girl had been lying in. "They align perfectly with her position."

Kurenai raised a brow and shifted the child's weight in her arms. "Well then, let's found out what she has to say about that."

* * *

They laid her against a tree and made themselves somewhat comfortable in the enclosure of a smaller clearing. Asuma sat on a fallen log inspecting the scroll, while Kurenai stood on watch and Inoichi seated himself across from the child to prepare for the Psycho Mind Transmission. With a steadying breath, he closed his eyes and performed the necessary hand signs before placing a palm to her soot-dusted forehead.

 _Now, first of all...who is she? And what village?_

An image slowly materialized in his mind's eye, an expansive hall full of similarly red-clothed girls listening to red-robed women talking at a dais. "Zhao Fan," one of them announced, and he – or rather, the girl whose eyes he was seeing through – stirred in quiet excitement to the dais.

 _What is this place?_

He sifted the images forward and back, catching glimpses of an elaborate traditional-style city walled by jagged volcanic stone. _Capital City_ , was its name, whispered to him by the various voices of the girl's memories. _Fire Nation._

 _What on earth..._

He pushed further back in time, struggling to find any semblance of normalcy in this strange girl's mind. All he could see and hear, however, were places and things he'd never seen nor heard before; _Earth Kingdom, Water Tribe, the war, Fire Lord, the Avatar, swallowgales, Sacora..._

Suddenly, everything around him was no longer composed of reds and oranges, but the icy blues and whites of a snowy place. His height was considerably shorter too, and as he craned his neck back, he was met with the smiling face of a tan-skinned woman with braided brunette hair. "Sacora," she cooed, and reached out for a hug which he happily ran into.

He stopped rewinding then and played through the memories at a steady yet shifting pace. Sacora was her birth name; some place called the Northern Water Tribe was her childhood home. The loving woman and an older brother named Koda made it a small family of three. But the child was different from them. A handful of other children were like her, standing out with their bright amber eyes and jet black hair, their affinities with fire. Sometimes just children, other times bad omens.

Then a fight, an attack of fire and red armored men – they had killed her mother. One of them took her away, claiming to be her father. An angry, screaming struggle. Scary metal ship.

"You are Fan now," the man told her on the ship. "The Fire Nation is your true heritage. Forget your Mama; she is gone."

New clothes. New identity. Now in the Captial City, a new home.

Two new siblings, Xiuhua and Baojun. A new mother, too, who wasn't very motherly.

The cold face of Lady Yan. Thinking the child out of earshot, she snapped at her husband, "What is this? Why have you brought another child into our home?"

"She is of your blood, Yan – you recall that you have family living in the Shuyin colony. We passed by on our journey home and heard news of a rebellion. Her parents were killed in the attack; now she only has us. Would you think it appropriate to just leave her to the hands of those Earthen criminals?"

And now, a new lie. The answer was far from appeasing, but his tone was not to be trifled with. Yan, quieted, offered no more argument. But she would always look askance at the child when her husband was not present. _Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned_ , Inoichi thought to himself.

Rigorous education. Proper tutoring in the firebending arts, mostly to drive out the old Tribe habits and mannerisms, before sending her off to the Royal Fire Academy. Four years of study, discipline, and indoctrination. "Long live the Fire Lord! Praise be to his good name!" But never once a moment of forgetting Mama.

And then...a scroll. _Looks like the one I picked up._ "It contains the secret to redirecting lightning," spoken with schoolyard mischievousness. There followed apprehension, yet curiosity. The scroll is unfurled... _Well_! It was a jutsu scroll. She couldn't understand the hiragana, though, and neither could she read the kanji, most of which was old. Studying, studying, and multiple attempts...finally success, but with unexpected results. _Elemental Veil?_ Inoichi wondered. _Never heard of that technique before._

The jutsu apparently transported her into the clearing they'd just left. Locked down, unable to move, chanting people around a circle. _The cult_ , he recognized. Then a blaze of fire, overwhelming heat–

And then nothing.

Inoichi's eyes snapped open, the chakra receding into his body as he cut the jutsu off. No more could be read from her mind, as she'd lost consciousness since. Rather disappointing, but he'd gotten quite the haul from her regardless.

"Well," Kurenai remarked. "That took a while. Did you get anything?"

"Yup," he grunted as he rose from the ground. "But it's all very...strange."

"No kidding," Asuma chimed in. "This scroll here is just..." He gestured vaguely with a hand before dropping it in defeat. "It's just plain weird. None of this should even work as a jutsu!"

Kurenai raised a brow and looked to Inoichi in confusion.

"Let's just say, it'll all make for one hell of a report," Inoichi concluded, and then signed for them to be on the move.

* * *

A warm, soothing touch brushed against her forehead, calming all her fears and worries. With a little stir, she coaxed her eyes open and blinked drearily at the blurry face before her.

"Mama?" she rasped, making out the vague shape of braided hair loops on the face. "Is that you?"

"Oh no, dear, I'm afraid I'm not your mother."

Fan blinked again and swallowed. Her throat stung, eliciting a cough. She lifted an arm, heavy as lead, to make a clumsy attempt at rubbing her eyes. As her sight slowly sharpened, she found herself facing a tiled ceiling lit brightly by a rectangular glass beam. "Huh...?" A sharp chemical smell reached her nose, causing her to cringe in revulsion. "Where...am I?"

"You're in the hospital, dear," the female voice supplied, and Fan turned about to find that it belonged to a woman dressed in off-white clothing and a funny looking cap. She was writing something on a clipboard, but looked up at the movement. When their eyes met, she brushed a lock of brown hair behind an ear and smiled. "How are you feeling?"

Fan blinked at the woman and then turned her head about. The room, a pale blue, was plain and slick and smelled disgusting, and was just...it just looked _wrong_. "Where am I?" she repeated, more frantic now. She rose from the sheets and found them coarse and stiff compared to the ones she was used to, then saw in horror a thin, snaking tube attached to crook of her arm by a needle not-so-subtly covered with gauze bandaging. "What is that!?" she shrieked, and clawed furiously at the bandages to pry it out.

"No, don't!" the woman scolded, pulling her hand away. "That's an IV line! We had to insert it to prevent dehydration–"

"I don't understand!" Fan jerked back. "Wh-who are you? Where am I? What's going on?"

"Just relax, dear, you'll get to know in a sec..."

"No! I need to go–" Fan's eyes widened when she remembered where she had to be. "My father's promotion ceremony–"

"Just...just hang on!"

Another capped head peeked through the doorway, curious and questioning. "Hmm? Something wrong, Miya?"

The woman turned from Fan to her colleague. "Go tell them she's awake," she instructed. "I'll prepare her in the meantime. She doesn't look like she'll take it well..."

The face beneath the cap made an uncomfortable grimace. "Oooh, okay. Good luck." Then the head disappeared and footsteps echoed down the hallway, leaving them alone again.

"Prepare me for what?" Fan demanded, feeling more frightened now than ever.

"You'll know soon, dear," the woman said with a smile. "Now please hold still, and I'll remove the IV..."

* * *

 **Notes**

I'm not entirely sure if Inoichi had to use hand signs before performing the Psycho Mind Transmission, but it felt wrong to write him not doing it. Feel free to correct me if that's not the case.


	3. Chapter 3

The nurse checked Fan's vitals before helping her change from the linen hospital garments back into her clothes. It was a confusing moment, made even more so by their subsequent journey through the slick tiled halls. Strange beeping noises emitted from the different rooms they passed by, and that gross smell permeated everything; it wasn't a stink, it wasn't even organic, but it was sharp and awful.

They went down a floor to what looked like the lobby. It was essentially a larger scale version of the room before, with a counter and rows of open seating occupied by people dressed in a simplistic fashion the likes of which Fan had never seen. She recognized the style of crossed lapels and robes on some, but they were shorter and lighter than usual, and the majority wore plainer cuts with strange color concepts. As if that weren't enough, their shoes had slits that exposed the toes...

A feeling of dread gripped her as she took in this bizarre scene. _This isn't what hospitals are supposed to look like. This isn't how Fire Nation people are supposed to dress._

"Here she is," the nurse said as they stopped by the counter, snapping Fan back to reality.

The person whom the nurse addressed was a man in a strange green jacket. He stood out from the rest with a metal-plated headwrap engraved with a weird spiral symbol and bandages around a thigh that supported a rectangular pouch. His shaggy brown hair obscured one eye, and for some reason, his shirt reached high enough to cover part of his chin.

"Thanks," he said to the nurse. "I'll take it from here." When she left, he gestured at Fan. "Follow me."

His frankness and lack of explanation disquieted her slightly. "Where are we going?" she asked as he headed for the doors. She followed suit, but did so tentatively.

"We just need to ask you some questions," the man said. "It won't take long."

Curious glances followed her, much to her discomfort; strange as these people seemed, she failed to think of how she would appear to them. "I...I have questions too," she stuttered as she sped up to fall in step beside him.

"Good," he remarked. "We can help each other out, then."

They exited the hospital and emerged into the fresher air of a bustling town – or city? – almost like the Captial City but...not quite. It was more colorful, more rustic and crowded. Nothing resembled the refined discipline of the Fire Nation capital; there was structure, but it appeared messier somehow. Perhaps it was the weird lines that spanned over the rooftops, like weaves of string? Or the strange tubes that ran along the walls, like creeping worms?

Then as the man led her through the winding streets, she came to recognize the scroll's curly characters on various signs and papers. _No way_ – was this weird place and the scroll somehow...linked?

The thought burned terribly at the back of her mind, but she couldn't muster the courage to ask the green-jacketed man. His only interest appeared to be in escorting her to their destination and nothing more. When he finally spoke to her again, it was through the doorway of an official-looking building. "This is it."

Its lobby held the same slick appearance as the hospital, but was darker and to Fan, more tasteful. The man led her through a door and into a series of empty, winding halls, before depositing her in a small room furnished by nothing more than a table and two chairs. He directed her to sit at the chair opposite the door and said, "Someone will come in a bit," before leaving her alone in the dim space.

It seemed easy enough for the first several minutes; then as time ticked by, the silence became unbearable. Fan fidgeted in her seat, trying not to think of worst case scenarios. Tiny details in the room started bothering her. _It's so gray. And small._ _Why is there even a mirror?_ she wondered, staring apprehensively at the large reflective glass at the side of the room.

The doorknob suddenly clicked open, startling her from her reverie. In came yet another green-jacketed man with a metal plated headwrap, and in his hand was the very scroll Chuni had given her.

Fan's eyes widened at the sight of it. "You have the scroll!" she couldn't help blurting out.

"Why, do you recognize it?" he asked as he slid into the chair across from her.

"Yes..." She swallowed. "My friend gave it to me. She said it would help me learn to redirect lightning..."

The man laid the scroll on the middle of the table and nodded lightly. "All right, then. So, uh..." He coughed. "Aherm, sorry. What's your name?"

"Fan...Zhao Fan."

"I'm Hayate."

"Um...nice to meet you, Hayate."

"How old are you?"

 _These people don't beat around the bush, do they?_ "I'm twelve."

He nodded again, and reclined in his seat. "So...Fan...you said you got this scroll from a friend?"

"Yes, after the headmistress gave her year end's speech. We were out in the courtyard walking to our family's carriages. She showed the scroll to me and said she bought it from a hawker on Wuyang Lane."

"Uh-huh..." Hayate coughed again. "Scuse me. So, where do you go to school?"

"The Royal Fire Academy for Girls."

"And where would that be?"

"The Capital City..."

"Of what?"

"The...the Fire Nation! Don't you know...?"

Hayate raised an eyebrow. "Around here, we call it the Land of Fire."

"So?" Fan demanded. "That's the same thing, isn't it?" _Isn't it?_

"I don't know. Is it?" Hayate shrugged. "I've never heard of a royal academy before. The only one we have is the academy here, in Konoha. Besides, the Land of Fire isn't ruled by a monarchy."

"But the Fire Nation is..."

"Sounds like we're talking about two different places, then," Hayate said with finality.

"That's not possible," she argued. "The Fire Nation is one of the most powerful nations in the world! It's in the middle of a war to conquer the other nations, and winning. How can there be another with the same name and I haven't heard of it? Next, you'll probably tell me that the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes don't exist."

Hayate stared at her blankly for a moment. "They don't."

"This is ridiculous! Do you have a map?"

Hayate sighed and pressed a small black thing at the edge of his collar. "Hey, you there? Yeah, I need a map...make it a world map. No, just shut up and do it."

Fan wondered what talking to his jacket collar would accomplish, but another man came in a moment later with a rolled up map roughly the size of the table.

"I had to take this off the wall," he said to Hayate, "so let me know when you're done, okay? Ibiki's going to be so pissed–"

"It'll be quick," Hayate promised, and unfurled it on the table for Fan to see. "Here you go."

With a frown, she got up out of her seat to get a bird's eye view of the map. Almost immediately, she saw plenty of things wrong with it. "The Fire Nation isn't supposed to be that big! It's not part of a continent, and how is this Land of Wind so close? The Air Nomads were killed off a long time ago! The Water Tribes shouldn't even be there, they're on opposite poles! The Earth Kingdom isn't that small either..." She looked up at Hayate. "This must be a hoax! Whoever made this ripped it off from the eastern Earth Kingdom coast and just gave it more islands!"

"What the hell is she talking about?" the other man asked incredulously.

Hayate re-rolled the map and pushed it back into his colleague's arms. "Just ignore it and go back to your job." Once they were alone again, Hayate let out another cough before looking pointedly at Fan. "By the way, we're in a period of peacetime right now. We haven't started a war in years. Does that clear things up for you?"

Fan's heart raced as she thought of the implication. _No, that can't be true..._ if this wasn't the Fire Nation, then where _was_ it? A hundred possibilities started sinking in, but she refused to believe them. "My father is the newly appointed Commander Zhao of the navy!" she exclaimed suddenly. "I want to speak with him. This is all a mistake, and he can clear it up!"

"We don't have a navy."

"I-I don't want to speak any further if it's not with him!"

"Listen, I understand this is a difficult situation..."

But she was adamant in her request and refused to budge. After many attempts to get her to do otherwise, Hayate sighed in defeat and went out the room. Fan watched the door anxiously, wondering what Father would say when he arrived. _Maybe he's still in the middle of the ceremony,_ she thought. _He's probably upset with me for missing it and will be even more upset having it interrupted._ Not a prospect she relished, but one that seemed infinitely better than being stuck in this confusing place.

Hayate came back after a long while with an assistant to help roll in this weird cube-shaped machine on a trolley that had a tangle of wires sticking out from its rear. Fan watched them in confusion as they did something with the wires, plugging them into this small block thing before plugging that into the wall, and then pressing some buttons that changed the machine's empty black mirror into a series of jolting color and white noise. It shifted every so often with each adjustment of these strange, antennae-like protrusions on top of the machine.

Much to her surprise, the colors focused into the image of an old man – a _moving_ and _speaking_ image!

"Suzuki?" the old man rasped, his voice strangely grainier than it should be. "You ungrateful girl, you've finally decided to come home – wait a minute, you're not Suzuki!"

"You're not my father!" Fan yelled back, shocked beyond comprehension that the image was speaking to her.

"Why are you wasting my time with this?" the old man reproached Hayate, narrowing his beady eyes at him.

"Sorry, Lord Jao," Hayate apologized. "She claimed to be your daughter, so..."

"Well, she isn't!" he spat, and the image cut to black.

Hayate signaled for his assistant to roll the cube machine away and sat back down across from Fan. "Well, I tried."

"That was the wrong man – how did you even get images to talk like that!?"

"He's the only Land of Fire noble with a similar name," Hayate interrupted. "Take it as you will, but there's no one else."

Fan looked down despondently at the table before her, unable to form a retort. _No way,_ she thought. _Am I...really alone here?_

A moment of silence passed between them, before Hayate broke it by clearing his throat. "Do you know how we found you?" That got her attention, and when she looked up at him again, he continued, "You were unconscious in the middle of a burnt-down forest clearing. The only things our shinobi could retrieve from the scene were you and this scroll. Is there anything you can tell us about that?"

 _Burnt clearing..._ Fan frowned, trying to remember when, if ever, she was involved with burnt forests. _I remember getting ready for Father's ceremony..._ something had definitely happened, if she was here instead. Why was it so difficult all of a sudden to remember? But after much frowning deliberation, Fan finally had it. "I...I tried out the incantation on the scroll..."

Hayate opened up the roll of parchment and pointed to the line beneath the hand illustrations. "You mean this?"

"Yes..." She frowned some more. "I practiced really hard at the hand signs, and it took me several days to figure out the incantation's characters. I finally did, and then..."

"And then?"

She shivered as flashes of what could only be described as a nightmare came back to her. "I got stuck in the middle of a circle! There were these chanting people...they tried to burn me alive...!"

Hayate nodded. "I see. Do you remember anything else about them?"

Fan shook her head vigorously. "No, and I don't want to!"

"I understand. Sorry for bringing it up." He coughed. "Have you heard of the Cult of the Hidden Veil?"

"No..."

"We believe that's who those chanting people were," he explained. "They're a group of elementally-focused shinobi who've kidnapped people from our village in the past for a purpose we haven't been able to identify yet. Recent intel led us to that location, and based on what you remember, it's possible they were trying to summon something. My guess is that they were using you for a sacrifice."

The very thought sent chills down Fan's spine. But yet another thing confused her; "What's a ' _shinobi_ '? You mentioned it earlier when you said I was found..."

"You don't know what a shinobi is?" It was Hayate's turn now to sound surprised. "What were you going to an academy for, then?"

"For my education, of course," Fan replied matter-of-factly. "Every noble daughter goes there. We learn literature, music, history, arithmetic, and if we're born with it, firebending..."

Hayate held out a hand to stop her. "Let's backtrack a bit. You said you thought the scroll would help you learn to redirect lightning, and the academy teaches you firebending. How is that not shinobi training?"

 _What is he getting at?_ Fan wondered, feeling more baffled by the minute. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said at last, "but some people are born with the ability to bend the elements...like, firebending, or earthbending and waterbending, for example. Airbenders were killed by the Fire Nation when the war started a hundred years ago, though. Then there is the Avatar, who can bend all the elements...but with the cycle broken, I don't think there'll be another one." _Do I really have to explain all this to an adult?_

"Sounds like the elemental release techniques to me," Hayate remarked. "And according to what you said, you were able to perform the jutsu on the scroll despite the fact that it's pretty much useless."

"Huh?" The scroll was definitely _not_ useless, if she remembered correctly. Besides which..."What's a jutsu?"

"You _do_ know of chakra, don't you?"

Fan blinked. "The scroll mentioned something called 'chakura'..."

"It's what shinobi use to perform jutsu. You know," he added when her face stayed blank, "by molding and releasing with hand seals?"

She frowned. "Are you...talking about chi? Because that's what benders use to bend the elements. You know, like this." She lifted a hand and ignited a flame in the middle of her palm, holding it for a few seconds before closing her fingers to smother it. "Maybe we just have different names for the same thing..."

But when she looked to Hayate again, the man was staring at her as though she'd sprouted tentacles. "How are you using Fire Release so...easily?" he demanded incredulously, the most emotion he'd shown throughout the whole interrogation.

"I don't understand...I just did a basic flame..."

"Do you realize how much skill it takes to mold? And you're performing it without a hand seal..."

"But that was just firebending," she protested. "A lot of my classmates can do it!" At the repeated mention of hand seals, though, something clicked in her head. He had described the cult's shinobi as elementally- _focused_ ; he never specified whether the elements were the only things jutsu could manipulate. "Those hand signs on the scroll...they can do things beyond firebending?" Well, obviously they did, if that was how she came here. "Your shinobi...aren't benders, are they?"

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about," Hayate admitted. "But this is...I'm gonna have a hard time explaining this on my report."

They went through another series of questions, this time aimed at the geographics of where she had come from. Then Hayate asked about benders and the Avatar, but the more she explained it, the more Fan could see the man getting frustrated and confused. In the end, worn and exasperated, he left the room and came back with a bundle of papers and a pen.

"Well, Fan...that ends our questioning for today. Thank you for your cooperation. I just need to fill out a few things before we figure out where to put you."

That took the wind out of her sails, as her slumped posture indicated. "Where will I be sent to?"

"That's what we're working out right now." He clicked on the pen and started writing. The utensil automatically had ink in it, so the characters flowed readily and smoothly from its tip, although they were thin and stick-like with no dimension. Again, the curly characters played a prominent role in the writing. "Let's see...what are the characters for your name? Or I suppose I could just write it in katakana..."

Fan opened her mouth to tell him, but stopped midway as a thought came to her head. "Um, actually..."

Hayate looked up. "Yes?"

"My name...isn't really Fan..."

He shifted in his seat. "What?"

"I _am_ Commander Zhao's daughter," she explained, "but I'm, um...illegitimate. My mother was from the Water Tribe. Fan is just a name he gave me...my real name is Sacora." She chuckled nervously. "Father told me to never tell anyone. But I guess it doesn't matter anymore, does it?"

"I suppose not." Hayate looked back down at the papers. "So, what do you want me to put down? Fan or Sacora?"

She took a deep breath to calm her shaking body, the thought of breaking one of the most fundamental rules Father had laid down overwhelming her with apprehension, and yet, relief. "Sacora, please."

She watched him write the name in a string of strange, sharp characters. It didn't matter what he used to write it down; he could have scribbled gibberish on the paper, for all she knew; she sat quiet and obedient, helplessly watching as her world turned upside-down all over again. What awaited her next was beyond her imagination.

"I'll be out for a moment," Hayate said when he was done, and rose from his chair. "Someone will come for you shortly."

* * *

"Well, she didn't lie," Hayate remarked as he came into the room. "Pretty much everything she said corroborated with your report, Inoichi."

The Yamanaka clan head let out a knowing "Hn" as he stared through the window into the little interrogation room Hayate had just left. Kurenai stood beside him, watching the strange girl inside with interest. The kunoichi had no reason to be present, but the invitation had been extended by the Intelligence Force and she was genuinely concerned about the child they'd picked up.

"I just can't believe you saw anything _that_ strange in her head," Hayate went on. "Are you sure she wasn't fabricating these memories somehow?"

"No," Inoichi said. "She doesn't have that sort of talent. In fact, she's not even a ninja."

"Indeed?" Kurenai asked, surprised. "But that flame technique she demonstrated..."

"What I sense from her _is_ chakra," he explained, "but not in any shape or form I can recognize. It's completely different in structure. I've seen these bender people demonstrate it in her memories...it is truly something else. They call it 'chi'."

Kurenai crossed her arms. "She said as much herself. What do you think this means? Where is this place she comes from?"

"I have no idea. Frankly, it's almost as if she comes from another _world_ entirely."

Another world. How ludicrous! Surely there was a better explanation. "And the scroll?" Kurenai inquired. "She doesn't seem to know anything about it, does she?"

Hayate shook his head. "If she'd been able to read it, she would have known that the jutsu was meant to take her to another dimension. Or world, whichever suits your fancy."

"...you can't be serious. The formula is utter nonsense–"

"Our analytics team deciphered a portion which says it can be performed after the moon completes another cycle. Care to try it out then?" Seeing Kurenai's irritated face, Hayate sighed. "Exactly, that's how ridiculous this whole thing sounds. Which brings me to my newest point...there's no possible way we can house this child in the orphanage while we figure out the situation. I don't care how 'different' her chakra signature is, she simply can't be loosed into a group of children with little oversight. Lord Third wants her more directly supervised and reported on."

That was understandable. There was no knowing why the clearing had been so ravaged, after all. No knowing if it hadn't anything to do with her fire abilities, even if a tiny bit...

"So, Kurenai, can you take care of the child in the meantime?"

Kurenai blinked, taken aback. "Me? You want _me_ to take her in?"

Inoichi gave her an apologetic look. "The girl has an attachment to her mother that still affects her. If there's anyone who can be an equally caring and strong figure in a child's life, well, it's you, Kurenai."

She huffed. "Am I supposed to take that as a compliment?" But seeing the importance of the situation, plus the forlorn look on the confused child's face, Kurenai didn't have it in her to say no. "I guess I'll do it," she sighed. "Just give me some time to get my apartment prepared. And while you're at it, tell me what else the Lord Third has in mind for her; if I'm going to be her guardian, I might as well have a say in her activities."

"Of course," Hayate nodded, and made to exit the room. "It'll take some time to get the paperwork sorted anyway. Feel free to go in the meantime. I'll call you when everything's ready."

Kurenai turned to leave as well, giving Inoichi a brief "Bye" before heading for the door. As she stepped through, she turned back one last time to look at the strange child. _Sacora, huh? What did the Cult of the Hidden Veil ever want to do with you?_

* * *

 **Notes**

After looking through images and maps of Konoha, I've determined that it would have been difficult for Sacora to have seen the Hokage monument from the hospital. Then the building she is interrogated at is not the Hokage tower, but rather a separate one they use for interrogation, which I couldn't find on the map so I decided to play it safe. I'll save her reaction to the monument for when she comes closer to the area.

Fun fact: the shinobi world map has roughly the same shape as the eastern Earth Kingdom coast.

Regarding chakra vs. chi- according to the ATLA wiki, chi is referred to as the metaphysical energy that runs through the human body; bending is the ability to manipulate chi to the point where one's energy can extend beyond the body and interact with the environment. Chi is universal and can be manipulated by anyone, even the rare few nonbenders, but (in my observation) appears to have a tendency to be more prominent in the genetics of benders. Chakra has been defined in the ATLA universe as the nexuses of chi within the body, although more in relation to the Avatar than for benders and the first we hear of it is in the episode with Guru Pathik, so I'll assume Sacora doesn't know of it. Therefore, it's not entirely off the mark for Inoichi to describe Sacora's chi in his definition of chakra, just different in structure (given how jutsu and bending are executed).


	4. Chapter 4

Kurenai slid the key into the lock and twisted it. "Make yourself at home," she said as she swung the door open, revealing a nice and tidy space within. She flicked on the light and slid her shoes off at the entrance, relishing the feel of cool hardwood beneath feet made weary and achy after another exhausting day. "I've got dinner on the stove that I'll heat up real quick. But first, I'll show you to your room..."

The child by the door had not yet taken her shoes off, but was staring dumbfoundedly at the lights instead. She jolted upon realizing Kurenai had her eyes on her and smiled apologetically. "Oh, sorry...so I take my shoes off?"

"Yes."

"Okay..." She reluctantly slid her feet out of those long boots of hers – such a strange fashion, those pointed toes! – and stepped cautiously onto the hardwood.

"It's right this way," Kurenai said, leading her through the entryway into a hall that passed the kitchen and living room and split into two rooms. One was Kurenai's of course, and the other was for the child. "It's a bit bare now, but you can always decorate it later. At the moment, I've only got a futon for you, but I do have an old bed I took apart some time ago. If I can find the tools for it, I'll put it back together."

"That's fine. Thank you..." The child entered to deposit the bag of essentials that had been given to her by Hayate, but when Kurenai turned on the light, she spun around in surprise. "Wh-what? Here, too?"

"Well...you can turn the lights on and off in all the rooms by flicking a switch..." Kurenai demonstrated, turning the lights off and back on again.

"You don't have to light candles or lamps? You just flick a switch?" The child let go of her bag without a second thought and started trying out the switch for herself. Off, on. Off, on. "How does that work?"

"Electricity," Kurenai supplied, though she hoped she wouldn't have to explain anything further. _Damn if I know how it works specifically._

"Lightning?" the girl gasped. "You use _lightning_ to light up your house?"

"Not to _that_ extent," Kurenai corrected, "but in controlled amounts. Enough to put in the light bulbs, for instance, or as currents in the wall plugs."

Kurenai next showed her the bathroom. "Feel free to use my shampoo and conditioner. I got you a new toothbrush; it's the orange one in the cup. Go ahead get washed, and I'll have dinner ready as soon as you're done."

"Okay."

Having nothing else to attend to, Kurenai went to the kitchen to heat up the food. But she hadn't turned the stove on for longer than three minutes when an uncertain voice called out to her from the hall. "Um...Miss Kurenai?"

"Yes?" Kurenai called back.

"How do I take a bath when there's no water?"

Funny, the water bill had already been paid for the month. _Don't tell me she doesn't know how indoor plumbing works, too?_ The kunoichi left the pan of fried rice on the stove and walked down to the bathroom. "The water isn't working?" she asked, and found the girl standing in the same spot since she'd left her.

"There's no water at all..."

Kurenai reached over and pulled on the shower handle. Water gushed abundantly from the spout like a generous rainfall. "You have to pull on the handle like this. Then if you want to adjust the temperature, switch it this way for hot and cold...this is how you shut it off..." She couldn't believe it, but she spent the next few minutes teaching a twelve-year-old how to operate the shower, sink, and toilet. She threw in quick instructions on how to use shampoo and conditioner for good measure, then rushed back to her cooking before the rice could get burnt.

Dinner proceeded with no interesting events. The child, newly dressed in pajamas, ate at the table with Kurenai in a quiet and polite manner. Her eyes stayed fixated on her bowl, as if nothing else existed in this moment beyond its contents.

 _Strange,_ Kurenai thought. _Didn't Inoichi say she lived in some wealthy place? Why does she act as though she's never seen a home with electricity and running water before?_ The behavior reminded her of the astonished way she had reacted to the screencast of Lord Jao. _Or_ _when he said it was a 'traditional' style place, he_ really _meant it in every sense of the word...?_

"So, Sacora," Kurenai spoke up, trying to encourage some conversation. "Tomorrow you'll be meeting with an Academy teacher."

The child paused and looked up at Kurenai. _I should really stop thinking of her that way,_ Kurenai sighed. _She has a name that I know of, for god's sake._ It was hard letting go of that side of herself though, that side that had dealt with the reports and the missions more than the actual people behind them. In a way, it helped to distance her disgust with the cult; she couldn't feel affected if she never felt personal. It would probably be easier to adjust it though, now that they would share the same living space.

"Why?"

"It's not going to be anything extreme," Kurenai assured her. "He just wants to see your firebending. And maybe we'll run some tests with my genin..."

"Oh, okay." But Kurenai could tell that Sacora was more confused than concerned, and from the way she had reacted during the interrogation, Kurenai wondered if she even knew what genin were in the first place?

"He'll also explain anything that's confusing to you," Kurenai added. "He's good at that, being a teacher and all."

She wanted to add something about her genin being around the same age, but found the words dying on her tongue as Sacora went back to eating wordlessly. _This is Hinata all over again..._ The shy young Hyuga eventually warmed up to her, but the quiet period in between was unsettling nonetheless. To go through something similar again was rather uncomfortable, but she had agreed to this, hadn't she? Just as she'd agreed to take on a genin team.

 _I probably shouldn't say more about it, anyway,_ Kurenai thought. _She's taken in a lot of information today. I'll bring her to Iruka in the morning and see how it goes._

* * *

Sacora slipped into the futon with a grateful stretch of her legs. The puffy quilt was soft, comforting, and warm. It was everything she could want at the moment. Burying her face into the pillow, she closed her eyes and sought her much-needed sleep despite the uncomfortable broiling in her stomach at this sudden difference in reality.

Different. Miss Kurenai's home smelled different, felt different. Even the basic act of taking a bath was different. Everything about this place was...different. Alarmingly so. The thought made Sacora feel small and vulnerable all over again.

 _Oh, that's right. I'm Sacora now...not Fan._ That was new, too. She never thought she'd be able to use, much less hear that name again. She'd always dreamed it would be through some miracle that brought her back to the Water Tribe, though, not here in this... _I think they call it 'Konoha'._ And was it really a village? It seemed too big to be one.

How long would it be before she regained any sense of normalcy? How many years would she end up passing here, and would she have to learn these people's ways, just as she had when she first came into Father's house? What were Chuni and Father, Baojun and Xiuhua, even Lady Yan, thinking now? As hard as it was to admit, she actually missed Lady Yan's cold glances. _At least I knew where I was. At least I knew Father was still there if I needed him. Even if he had to be away in another corner of the world...at least it would be in the same one as me._

Because what else was this place, if not another world? For such a large country with inventions like talking images and lightning-powered homes, she surely would have heard of it in her history lessons by now. But no, it was a completely foreign, almost fictitious place, suddenly made real by some cruel twist of fate.

She shut her eyes tight against the unfairness of it all and fought back the tears that threatened to spill past her quivering lids.

 _I should never have accepted that stupid scroll. Never._

* * *

"So Kurenai, Asuma, and Inoichi recovered a child from their reconnaissance mission...who supposedly comes from a foreign place with, er, _strange_ abilities...and I'm the one you want to examine her? Did I hear you correctly, Lord Hokage?"

"I don't think I stuttered," the old man rebuffed.

"I apologize," Iruka had been quick to add, "but that job...shouldn't it be for someone in the Hyuga clan? Or some sort of sensor? I have students to teach, and I simply can't take a day off on such short notice."

"I understand," Sarutobi sighed. "But I'm getting reports that she's awfully sensitive right now, and observation under a Hyuga clan member would unnecessarily scare her. I just need you to compile notes on how bending compares to basic jutsu; Kurenai is taking care of her at the moment, so if you want a Hyuga's observation, you can start with Hinata."

"'Bending'? Is that what it's called?"

"So say Inoichi and Hayate's reports. I'll give you copies since you seem skeptical. Just do me this favor tomorrow, and I promise you that future requests won't come so suddenly."

And that was how he ended up here at six in the morning, drinking his coffee amidst the quiet of one of the village's training grounds instead of the familiar atmosphere of his classroom. Luckily, Daikoku Funeno agreed to sub for him, so he wouldn't be too missed (inasmuch as his pop quizzes were concerned). It seemed an annoyance at first, this break in his routine; then as he settled down on a log and skimmed through his copy of the reports, his brows furrowed deeper and deeper.

Inoichi's came first, and had it not been framed in the context of a mission report, Iruka could have sworn it was an outline for a fantasy novel. The girl was noted to be lacking in mental blocks or manipulation, offering about the same amount of resistance and accessibility as the average unskilled civilian, so according to Inoichi that meant what he had seen was completely accurate. But even his closest peers seemed to doubt the report's credence, for the next few documents Iruka read through were dismissive of her origins. The mysterious scroll found at the scene only served to wrinkle the Intelligence Force's noses further, for its formula was, quote, "absolute rubbish". They were mostly concerned with the circumstances of her discovery and bits of evidence that suggested she may have had something to do with all the destruction. The only things ordered in that period of time were blood and urine samples while she lay unconscious at the hospital, the results of which were still pending.

Then came her interrogation. It was what had sent the Hokage's administration in the frenzied rush responsible for Iruka's absence from the Academy. He supposed it made sense, for hearing or reading about her and her people's abilities was vastly different than seeing it in person. Had any of it been taken seriously from the start, he would have been summoned far earlier for this sort of thing.

 _With plenty more scheduled for her, I don't doubt._ The Lord Hokage was an all around ethical man, but there would be many who'd be interested in further insight on her physiology. Perhaps such a thing was being discussed even now...

 _Good lord. For her sake, I hope nothing extreme pops up._

As if on cue, the sound of approaching footsteps made Iruka raise his head. Before him was the shapely outline of Team Eight's sensei, walking silently in conjunction with a girl dressed in overwhelmingly red hues. Unlike the young girls of their village, she was conservatively clothed from head to toe, the only visible skin being her head and hands; and speaking of toes, her boots had the oddest, almost comical emphasis to them. He tried not to stare too much as they neared.

"Kurenai!" he called out jovially, rising from the log. "Long time no see. How's it been?"

"It's been good," she returned. "Team Eight's doing well. I'd send regards on their behalf, but they'll be coming to meet you shortly." Her crimson eyes then flashed to the child beside her. "Sacora, this is Iruka-sensei. He's the teacher who'll be observing you today."

The girl formed a fist and placed an upright hand above it before bowing. "Good morning, Master Irukasensei," Sacora greeted.

Iruka choked back a laugh. "Ah, no, 'sensei' already means teacher," he corrected. "It's not a part of my name."

She straightened hesitantly and blinked. "Oh...so...it's a title _after_ your name?"

"Well, yes. Didn't you call Kurenai-sensei the same...?"

He sent a questioning glance Kurenai's way, but she was already half-turning to leave the grounds. "I'll leave you both to it," she said, and Iruka swore she sent him a smirk before blinking away.

... _right._ Explaining things was _his_ job now. He rolled up the reports and stuffed them into a pocket, mentally preparing for the additional task ahead of him. "So, Sa...uh, cora. I hear you're not very familiar with our village."

She shook her head.

"Well...we are Konohagakure, the Hidden Leaf Village. Now, when you hear of a 'hidden village', it refers to a village run by shinobi." He stopped her with an outstretched hand the moment her mouth opened. "I know what you're going to ask; _what is a shinobi_? I'm sorry if Hayate didn't explain it to you well yesterday. There's no easy way to describe it, you see. Simply put, shinobi – or ninja, the terms are interchangeable – are warriors who utilize chakra to perform special techniques called jutsu. But more than that, shinobi are the lifeblood of their villages and countries; hidden in the shadows, they work tirelessly to maintain peace and order. Because it is not the shinobi way to garner attention, no; through the Will of Fire, we–"

"Actually," she meekly interrupted, "I wanted to ask why Konoha is considered a village when it seems rather big..."

 _Oh..._

"B-but I was wondering what shinobi were, too!" she quickly reassured him.

Iruka chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I suppose it depends on your definition of village. Konoha started pretty small in the beginning, so if anything 'village' is a moniker referring to older times. Anyway...I'm sure you know by now that the Land of Fire is ruled by a Feudal Lord? No? Well, now you do. Hidden villages such as ours are lead separately by Kage, titled according to the country. For instance, Hokage in the Land of Fire, Mizukage in the Land of Water, and etcetera. Which brings me to the shinobi ranks. There are three basic titles: jonin, chunin, and genin. Potential shinobi start out as Academy students; then when they graduate, they become genin, or junior ninja, and are assigned to a three-man team under the supervision of a jonin sensei."

"So that's what Miss Kurenai was talking about when she mentioned genin," Sacora remarked. "I mean, Kurenai- _sensei_."

"That's right! And after a certain period of time, when the genin have reached a level of maturity in their abilities endorsed by their senseis, they take exams to become chunin, or journeyman ninja. They're entrusted with higher level missions and can go alone without supervision. Most shinobi in the village are chunin; I'm one, for example, although I don't go on missions due to being a teacher. It isn't unless we take a jonin exam or if enough villagers and the Kage deem us fit that we can be promoted to jonin. Jonin are highly experienced shinobi who serve as military captains; they are a step below to becoming Kage, so you can imagine that the one chosen to be Kage must be the strongest in the village."

Her contemplative expression made Iruka wonder whether any of what he'd said had registered with her. It wasn't often that he had to give a thorough explanation on villages and shinobi, after all. Most Academy students came in already knowing the basic principles.

"Don't worry if it's too much to take in," Iruka assured her after a while. "I imagine it would be the same for me if you had to describe everything about the benders." Seeing her perk up in response, he gave her a friendly smile. "If there's anything else you want to know, don't hesitate to ask."

She seemed surprised at first by the gesture, but gradually warmed enough to give him a bashful smile of her own. "Thank you."

He felt pleased with himself at that and decided he had been rather helpful, after all. _This is better than I expected._ _I'd say we're off to a good start,_ Iruka thought confidently.

* * *

"Sweet, no morning training or missions!"

"Calm down, Kiba. It's only Hinata who'll be doing anything..."

"Hey, sometimes doing nothing is better than doing anything. Even _you_ have to admit that you've been sick to death of our 'missions'." This, emphasized with air quotes.

"Which we'll just go back to doing again? I don't really see your point."

"Aw, shut up, Shino! God, you're such a party pooper."

"O-oh, but maybe you'll get to do something, too...Kiba...Shino..."

"I doubt it," Kurenai intervened, slightly amused as always by her team's quirky interactions. "And stop complaining, Kiba. Those missions help build character."

"Ugh, you _always_ say that," he groaned. "'Build character?' More like free labor for the Hokage..."

Kurenai smirked at that, but offered no response. _Note to self: enroll him in twice the D-rank missions when this is over._ "So...any thoughts?"

They exchanged glances with each other before looking back at their sensei. "The whole thing smells of a hoax," Shino replied frankly. "That girl is hiding something. There's no way you gained the most comprehensive lead on the cult in months, only to have it end at her and some nonsensical scroll with no cult member in sight."

"Perhaps they planned it," Hinata softly suggested.

"And how come you never told us about this weird cult before?" Kiba added, rather reproachfully. Akamaru let out a yip from his spot in the boy's coat, as if to voice his own concerns.

"Not all my missions are free to discuss," Kurenai reminded them.

"But something's changed," Shino pointed out, "since you're telling us now."

She couldn't argue with that. The Lord Third had allowed her to give them the context when he said Hinata's Byakugan could be used on Sacora. The problem had come directly into the village now, and it would do no one any good to be ignorant of the potential threat that might follow her; "Still, this shouldn't reach the ears of anyone outside the village. Neither do the civilians need to know."

"Of course, sensei," Kiba affirmed. "We know better than that." Hinata nodded and Shino adjusted his glasses with a little push, which Kurenai had come to read as a gesture of agreement.

"You'd better," Kurenai warned, and shot out a hand to ruffle Kiba's head.

"Agh – hey!"

"Not my fault you left your hood down, Kiba."

They entered the Third Training Ground shortly after and navigated to the spot where Kurenai had last left Iruka and Sacora. She supposed she wasn't too surprised to find the pair talking pleasantly with each other, Iruka seated on his log and Sacora by his feet as though listening to a story. Kurenai could even see a smile lighting up the young girl's face. _He's done a better job than me. Lord Hokage certainly didn't choose wrong._

Iruka noticed them first and rose from the log. "Kiba, Hinata, Shino! Long time no see!"

"Hey Iruka-sensei!" Kiba waved.

"H-hello, Iruka-sensei," Hinata greeted.

Shino, passive as always, nodded once in Iruka's direction. "Iruka-sensei."

"How are you all doing? I hope you haven't been giving your new sensei too much trouble! Especially you, Kiba."

"Hey, I'll have you know I'm one of the strongest on the team!" Kiba bit back with a wolfish smile.

"Strongest doesn't always mean the best, Kiba," Shino retorted.

Sacora turned around at the noise and jumped to attention at the sight of Kurenai. When her eyes landed on the three genin, she grew uneasy again. Kurenai vowed to change that.

She cleared her throat authoritatively, gaining their attention. "All right, everyone," she announced. "Just another set of pleasantries before we can get down to business. If you would ple–"

"Yo, what's with the pirate getup?" Kiba interrupted with a snicker.

Confusion spread across Sacora's face at the remark. "Watch it!" Kurenai snapped, and the impudent mirth dried up almost instantly. "As I was saying, please go ahead and introduce yourselves."

Shino went first. "Aburame Shino."

"Hyuga Hinata," the young Hyuga offered shyly. "N-nice to meet you."

Kiba looked Sacora up and down in appraisal. "Inuzuka Kiba," he smirked. Akamaru chimed in with a bark. "And Akamaru," he added, scratching the little dog's head.

Sacora seemed unaware that it was her turn until a little later. "Zhao Sacora," she mumbled, looking past the three genin.

"And you all know who I am," Iruka put in, saving the mood. "Sooo..." He picked up a clipboard from the log. "Let's get on to it. What we will do, Sacora, is have you perform your bending techniques. Hinata here will use her Byakugan to observe your chakra pathways as you move. So, Hinata," Iruka began with a nod her way. "If you will please."

The young Hyuga nodded back and brought her hands together to perform the seals. In a whir of motion, she completed them with the swiftness of frequent practice. "Byakugan!" Almost immediately, the veins near her temples bulged until they prominently fringed the corners of her eyes. As the jutsu heightened, it seemed as though the very veins in the eyes bulged along as well.

Sacora drew back in fear at the sight of it. "What's happening to her?" she asked in muted horror.

"It's all right," Iruka assured her. "This is how the Byakugan is–"

But Kiba started laughing hysterically, cutting him off. Shino turned to his teammate and demanded, "What's so funny?"

"Aw, man," the Inuzuka panted. "This girl's hilarious! Getting scared by some Byakugan! As if Hinata were a monster or something!"

"O-oh," Hinata stuttered, "I'm sorry..."

"Watch your tongue!" Kurenai snapped at Kiba. "You wouldn't be laughing if you were in her shoes."

"Yeah, not with pointy ones like hers," he retorted, and burst into a fresh fit of laughter.

Sacora's cheeks burned beet red as she stared down at her boots. "They're not _that_ pointed," she mumbled in defense.

Kurenai narrowed her eyes at him. "Kiba, if you don't stop this instant…"

"He's calming already," Shino assured her, and grabbed at his teammate's arm. "Seriously, Kiba, get a hold of yourself. This is ridiculous."

When he finally stopped, Kurenai gestured for Hinata to continue holding the jutsu. "Pay him no mind," she added for good measure to both girls. "I'll deal with him later."

Iruka looked from Team Eight to Sacora. "Right, then...shall we begin?"

* * *

Sacora pursed her lips and swallowed her embarrassment as she looked to Iruka. "What would you like me to do, specifically?" she asked.

"Whatever you feel like doing," Iruka said. "Give us a good two or three minutes of demonstration, for starters."

Well, that didn't sound too difficult. The only thing that stayed her was the knowledge of the two strange boys standing witness to her bending; to be honest, all three genin were unsettling ( _isn't that Hinata girl blind? How does this Bi-ahck-yoo-gahn even help?_ ), but at the very least Hinata tried to be nice. Shino's black spectacles and high collar made him seem shady, while Kiba's flippancy simply rubbed her the wrong way.

 _I guess I'll have to go through it anyway,_ she thought as she distanced herself from them to start her bending. She focused on the standard breathing exercises to take her mind off the stings of humiliation. _I know just the thing to do;_ one of her favorite forms taught at the Royal Academy, which she liked to believe had played a role in awarding her the badge of honor.

Once she deemed herself far enough, she inhaled through her nose and brought her hands together in a triangular formation, exhaling through her mouth as she slowly lowered them below her chest. Then she shifted herself into position and, directing the flow of her chi as though it were just another start to a firebending class, punched out a blast of flame at an imaginary foe.

Her body moved without hesitation, punching again before transitioning smoothly to bring the fire from the outward attack into a circular movement. Building power from the ring, she blast fire from both fists and followed up with a spinning roundhouse kick. She landed lightly back on her feet and whipped around to send fire in consecutive snap kicks and punches as if her foe had dodged the previous attacks to come up behind her.

She next dropped to the ground and swiped her feet in arcs, sending crescents of fire skimming low to the ground. Pivoting on a wrist, she launched herself back up to make a series of high flames with hook kicks that would aim for the head as her enemy jumped to avoid the low ones. If for some reason he had managed to avoid that as well, she brought up a low-angled uppercut that traveled up her forearm and bloomed along her wrist to funnel into his torso.

The rush of heat was exhilarating, and suddenly Sacora felt herself not in Konoha but back at the Royal Academy – back in her _element_ – and gave in to the motions with a vigor her instructors surely would have approved of. No, that _Father_ surely would approve of.

As she moved, Iruka watched the foreign techniques with a mesmerized eye. He had remembered to scribble down notes on the clipboard, but couldn't help wondering in awe at what sort of skill it would take to maintain an Elemental Release without at least stopping to mold and release more chakra through hand seals in between. Fire techniques were considered difficult enough to master; to perform them in quick succession like this...

"Hinata, what are you seeing?" he asked, remembering the young Hyuga next to him.

"Ah...it's...not much different from a regular pathway system, but...she doesn't mold her chakra to use it...it flows in paths...and becomes fire, and then...it returns...and circles back around..."

 _Energy that doesn't get lost? A recyclable source of fuel?_ Indeed, Iruka would have expected a child her age to drop from chakra exhaustion way earlier. It seemed inconceivable that what Hinata was seeing was in any way true...which only served to confirm his and Inoichi's suspicions that ninjutsu and the young girl's art were different things entirely.

Sacora was nearing the end of the form as he contemplated this, having jumped back from another one of her aggressive punches. With a lightly forward hunch to gain momentum, she launched herself into the finishing move, her favorite maneuver thus far out of the entire form. Jumping high into the air, she envisioned her panicked enemy running beneath her in an attempt to escape. Then she spun her body horizontally, pivoting at the hips to create a swirling cycle of tornado kicks, before pinning him down in an angry stomp that flattened and blackened the grass beneath her feet.

She straightened herself in conclusion, smothering the little flames by her boots with a canceling inhalation. Her hands came together in formation again as she exhaled in the same manner as she had begun the exercise. _Three full rounds,_ she thought, counting the midair rotations she had performed. _Better than last time. Perhaps I can even get to four, like Chuni!_ Pride beamed throughout her body at this, and she noted with satisfaction the awed looks with which Iruka and Kurenai were regarding her.

But a single mutter brought it all down in ruins. "Show off."

Face growing hot, she whirled around angrily to confront this most recent jab. "If you graduated from your class with special honors, you'd show off too!"

"'Special honors', eh?" Kiba crossed his arms. "You ever put all that into practice? Or are you just good at looking flashy?"

"Kiba," Shino sighed in exasperation. "Will you please–"

"You know what?" Sacora interrupted. "If you think you're so special, why don't you come up here and spar me?"

"Oh yeah? Maybe I will!"

Hinata released her Byakugan and looked at each of them in turn. "B-but you're not supposed to," she protested meekly.

"Exactly," Shino agreed. "You both should know better than to let your emotions get the better of you."

"Actually...sparring sounds like a good idea." Kurenai cocked her head in Iruka's direction. "A little more _direct_ comparison. And with Kiba's specialty being taijutsu, it seems a more even match than Hinata or Shino. What do you think?"

Iruka tapped the pen against his chin in thought. "It could work. But we'll keep it brief and you both have to stick to the rules," he added in warning to the two of them.

Kiba cracked a grin at this sudden lenience and flexed his hands in anticipation. "You're _so_ going down."

* * *

 **Notes**

I'll assume that Fire Nation nobility don't take their shoes off in their homes, according to what I've seen throughout the series. Besides which, that would make even less sense in the Water Tribes, so Sacora finds the practice a little strange.

Master/sifu/sensei - while it seems like Sacora should have used 'sifu' when initially addressing Iruka, it is more for martial arts instructors than teachers and she is operating under the impression of the latter. Teacher would be laoshi. However, I felt it would be too convoluted writing it like that so I settled on 'master' instead. It has the perfect balance between being English and translatable to either context. Besides which, Avatar characters have been portrayed thus far as putting titles before names. I imagine this is how she addresses her teachers at the Fire academy as well (Master Blah, Madame/Mistress Blah). Beyond this, I'll try not to complicate the fic with more vocab differences unless necessary.

The fist-below-palm is a Fire Nation cultural greeting based off of martial arts greeting gestures. In the real world you would put the fist _in_ the palm, but I like to think the significance here is because the fist-below-palm resembles a flame.

Yugoda's chi mannequin and the shinobi chakra pathway diagram share very much in common, to be honest. And I apologize if my description of how a Hyuga clan member should see chakra being used is not accurate; the only thing I see when looking that up is the pathway system, but not the movements (or at least I'm not looking in the right place). Also I am partly half-assing the flow of chi, so yeah, there's that.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** I created a character card for Sacora that I put up on Deviantart and Ao3. Fanfiction doesn't let me link them properly on my profile so you would have to search for them yourself. My username is the same on all sites, so it should be relatively easy, plus the character card is the only artwork in my Deviantart gallery atm. I don't see other OC's entering the scene yet so I'll create one for Chuni, then one collectively for Lady Yan, Baojun, and Xiuhua later.

* * *

"No tools or third party help – which includes Akamaru this time – and basic tai and ninjutsu only."

Kiba reluctantly pulled a whining Akamaru out of his coat. "Sorry, boy, I'll have to do this alone."

"There's no win or lose in this spar," Iruka continued, "and it will be timed for five minutes. You stop as soon as I say so." He looked pointedly at them both and then took a step back when he seemed satisfied. "Go."

Without a second thought, Kiba hunched into position and performed a blur of hand signs. Two images phased on either side of him, separating to reveal twin copies of himself.

 _What!?_ This strange, red-marked boy...could clone himself? Sacora hardly believed what her eyes were seeing. But she was quickly reminded of the situation at hand when the original Kiba dashed out of sight and his two clones came rushing at her. Dropping into stance, she sent a punch and kick of flame their way and watched in bewilderment as her attacks made them poof into smoke.

 _Huh? So they're not real people?_ In that case, they were not the ones she should focus her attention on. Realizing it almost too late, she spun around and pulsed fire through her palms to block the incoming Kiba from colliding into her. He turned on a dime and leapt back, narrowly missing being burnt by a hair. In response, she spun in his direction and leapt into as high a spinning kick as she could muster, dropping back down to sweep a crescent of fire at his feet in case the kick's fire missed him, and felt a note of satisfaction when he stumbled a bit in avoiding it.

Still, he restabilized quick, and dashed away to her right. She whirled about to follow him, but in the ensuing blast she sent his way, his form seemed to blur and split into another clone. The problem was that she now couldn't tell which was the original. As the fire cleared away, she only perceived one Kiba, so she quickly whirled about to catch what she believed would be the real one trying to ambush her.

"Boo!" a mischievous whisper suddenly hissed into her ear, and she jumped around in surprise to find Kiba mere inches away from her face. "Made you look!" He then roughly knocked her down, causing the back of her head to meet the ground with a rude blow. She rolled away through the daze and leapt to her feet using short bursts of fire to put more of a distance between them.

"Kinda slow, aren't ya?" he smirked. "And I was going easy on you!"

He yelped as a whip of flame lashed at his coat sleeve. Without a word, Sacora gathered fire into a ring and sent it towards him in a large burst. As he jumped to dodge, she harried him with barrages of flame that kept him dancing on his feet, each blast growing more relentless than the other.

"All right already!" he growled as he swerved for the umpteenth time. Mid-jump, his hand came together in a single hand seal. "Ninja Art of Beast Mimicry: All Fours Jutsu!"

When he landed, he seemed to have transformed into something else entirely. Crouching on all fours, his eyes had grown more feral and his nails lengthened into sharp claws; if it weren't for his overall humanoid physique, Sacora could have sworn she was staring into the eyes of a beast.

These strange jutsu – from the eye-popping Byakugan to the multiplying clones and now, Beast Mimicry – were starting to unnerve her one by one. She lit up her palms again and sent angry whiplashes his way, but he was gone in a flash.

Heart pumping, she was about to turn around to catch him behind her, but felt a knock on her back before she could even move. "Too slow!" came the mocking jeer, and her side was bumped a moment later. In desperation she swept out in a circle with her leg, surrounding herself in a ring of fire. She raised the flames to create something of a barrier and took advantage of the momentary lull to think.

 _How!? How is he going so fast?_ Was it that jutsu? It had to be, and even before then, he was quite fast already. A woosh of air above her made her jolt, so she manipulated a piece of the fire barrier to target the cause but hit nothing. _No, this isn't going to work!_ With another sweep of her arms, she lowered the barrier until it sank into nothing, billowing the area with thick black smoke.

Using the cover, she dashed to the periphery and burst from the fumes panting yet wary. She figured if he had been nearby, with the wind blowing in the direction that it was, then he would still be within the smoke. Hopefully it would give her enough time to formulate something useful, but she was starting to doubt whether that'd be within her means.

"I might not see you," his voice hissed from within the smoke, and she tensed. "But I can certainly...smell you!"

Like a bad nightmare, he was suddenly barreling out at her from deep within the gloom, his wild eyes alight with glee as he dove his elbow into her stomach. A sharp, inward gasp was all she could give as the very wind was knocked out of her, replaced instead by a blunt ache. As she flew to the ground tumultuously on her back, that ache grew into a wincing pain.

"Ha! Not so tough now, are you?"

But she barely registered the taunt. With shallow breaths, she rolled onto her side and hugged her belly in an attempt to stem the pain lancing through her abdomen.

"Looks like your school oughtta think twice about who it gives 'special honors' to," the Inuzuka added. He craned his head back to give his team a grin. "This spar is over, sensei."

Kurenai sent him an exasperated look and jumped over to the fallen girl. She looked up at Iruka a moment later and shook her head.

Iruka nodded in response and wrote down some more notes. As he moved the pen, he couldn't help but feel a sense of confusion – _she can easily manipulate an element without much loss of energy, but wasn't able to counter Kiba's speed or do much defensively_ – it seemed quite a disadvantage for an otherwise impressive art. Remembering that she was still considered a student in her old home, he wrote down a few extra sentences. _I think I'll recommend her next to Kakashi Hatake when he and his team get back for a thorough analysis on why this might be._ Byakugan may have been able to see the "what", but Sharingan would be able to perceive the "how". Though she may not be a perfect example of her people, the basic mechanics would be noted and perhaps the level of what a master could achieve might be inferred.

"Can you sit up?" Kurenai was asking Sacora in the meantime. With gentle hands, she propped the girl up and palpated her stomach tentatively. "Nothing feels unusual, but if it hurts too much we'll take you to a clinic."

Hinata and Shino rushed over to them. "A-are you all right?" Hinata asked.

"I told you not to get in over your head," Shino sighed.

Sacora let out another shallow breath and hid her face in her knees as soon as Kurenai stopped prodding her. "I'm fine," she ground out.

A little yip sounded from her left and an annoying voice followed shortly after, thick with triumph. "That wasn't so bad, now was it, boy?" His footsteps came close, resounding echoes of her pain and humiliation. "Didn't take long at all. So what's next, sensei?"

She hugged her knees tighter to block out the noise. Hidden from them all, she allowed the first angry tears to stream down her cheeks. Had all her training and schooling been for naught? Just _what_ were these shinobi, if they could pummel her years of hard practice into the ground?

What had she gotten herself into?

* * *

The next few days passed her by in a slump. Kurenai-sensei mentioned something about meeting yet another jonin sensei for her bending, but it would be a while before he and his genin would return from their mission and so she spent her time trailing Team Eight as they trained. As if having to meet the three who'd witnessed her defeat every day wasn't awkward enough, she had no choice but to spend almost the entirety of those days in their presence. Apparently, she wasn't trusted enough to be let off on her own yet, though where she'd run off to in this bizarre place was beyond her.

This day was no different, stuck at a training ground while Kurenai schooled the three in ninja basics. Sacora chose a spot as far from them as Kurenai would allow and sat watching the wind blow through the trees. The very same trees that Kurenai was teaching them to...run on. _Not even the trees are safe,_ she thought as she sank her chin further between her knees.

"Why the long face? Doesn't look good on a young lady."

Sacora gasped and looked up to find an old man with a cane bending down beside her. "Oh, hello," she greeted, straightening out her knees.

His wrinkled face lit up with a gentle smile as he asked, "Are you lost?"

"Oh, no, I..."

"Ah, is that your sensei?" He pointed at Kurenai.

She shook her head. "She already has genin."

"I see." He hobbled around her log and sank shakily onto a spot next to her. Hands folded over his cane, his rheumy eyes blinked at the training genin as he smiled at them fondly.

Sacora stayed quiet a moment, unsure of what to make of this sudden intrusion. "How are you?" she ventured at last.

"Oh, very good. And you?"

"I'm good, thank you."

He nodded and smiled some more. "The grounds sure are nice today," he remarked. "Makes for a good walk when my knees aren't troubling me. Nice and quiet, you know. Peaceful in the morning." He breathed in a lungful of fresh air as if to prove the point. "My grandchildren are chunin now, you know. Used to watch them train when they were younger. Ah, they would get so embarrassed! But they became good ninja. Very good. You should be proud to be a Leaf ninja, young lady; it's an honorable path to walk."

She smiled at him in return. He probably didn't notice that she lacked the spiral-engraved headband, which she'd come to recognize as the mark of those in the shinobi profession. "I'm not from the village," she rebuffed gently.

"Oh, pardon me! Did you just move in from another village?"

She shifted in her seat, unsure of what to tell him. "Yes," she answered anyway.

"Ah, you're shadowing a team before you're assigned one of your own?"

"Um..."

"No worries! Welcome to Konoha. I wish you the best of luck." He then hefted himself to his feet with his cane, grunting laboriously as he straightened his back. "I must go now, it's about time for my tea. Your name, young lady?"

 _He's awfully nosy, isn't he?_ But she decided to oblige him, and rather welcomed his company after days of nothing but sulking. He was just a friendly old man who liked to chat, after all. "Sacora."

"Mr. Teiji," he provided with a tip of his head. "See you again soon, Sacora."

* * *

Kiba huffed as he stuck a kunai into the ground beside him. "I don't like the way she stares at us. Sensei, does she _have_ to follow us everywhere we go?"

"I've told you, Kiba, I'm responsible for looking after her. Until we find some sort of arrangement, she'll be where I'll be." _You're not the one who has to deal with the moping silence at home,_ Kurenai added to herself with an inward sigh. If it had been difficult to draw her out before, it was near impossible now.

"Why does it bother you so much anyway?" Shino asked, annoyed. "Do you feel guilty about the spar or something?"

"Wha – no!"

"M-maybe we should try talking to her?" Hinata suggested. "She does seem...lonely..."

Kiba wrinkled his nose in disgust. But before he could make a retort, Kurenai interjected, "You'll catch a lot more flies with honey than vinegar, Kiba. The opponents we defeat aren't always worthless. Besides, you all could probably get her to open up better than I can." She gave them a pointed look and said no further on the subject, letting them figure that one out for themselves.

Shino, as always, caught on quick. "We'll tell you anything we learn from her. Won't we, guys?" he asked of his teammates.

"Oh," Hinata nodded, a little embarrassed. "Of course..."

"Whatever," Kiba sighed, slapping the kunai back into his holster.

"Good. Now get back up on those trees and start running."

* * *

They were walking back through the village and had stopped on a corner street for Kurenai to pick up something at a store, when the ice-cold metal can was suddenly lobbed at her.

"Here, catch," was all the warning that she'd been given.

Sacora jolted and scrambled to keep from dropping the can, finally gaining ahold of it awkwardly against her chest. She looked up uncertainly at its grantor and furrowed her brows in confusion. "Uh...thanks...?"

She and Kiba stared at each other for what seemed like a long while, until he gestured at the can. "Well? Open it."

Sacora looked down at the strange cylinder, inspecting it for some sort of opening. "How?"

"Pull the metal thing. No, that's upside-down! Oh, just lemme do it–" He grabbed the can again and pulled a little metallic tab at the top, eliciting a crisp _click_. "See? It's that ea–" And then he gasped and spluttered as the hissing contents sprayed all over his face. Akamaru, stuck in his coat, let out a yelp of surprise and ducked down for safety.

Sacora couldn't help but giggle. When she saw Kiba's unamused expression, however, she coughed it away. "It's, um...foaming to the ground..."

"I can see that," he huffed as he wiped his face with his sleeve.

"You shouldn't have thrown it," Shino chided from behind him. "Now it's all shaken up."

Kiba rolled his eyes and held the bubbling can out to her again. Even Akamaru, cautiously nosing his way out of the coat, seemed to stare at her with an imposing look of expectance. She accepted the can tentatively, doing her best to avoid the rivulets of dark liquid streaming down its sides. "What is it?" she asked.

"A peace offering."

"No, I mean...what _is_ it?"

His eyes widened in surprise. "Are you saying you've never had soda before?"

She shook her head slowly.

"Well...what are you waiting for!? Oh my god, I can't believe you've never had _soda_!"

He wanted her to drink...that? She lifted the can closer and heard whispers of hissing and popping from inside. It felt against the grain of instinct to ingest such a seemingly hazardous concoction, but why would he poison her? He didn't dislike her _that_ much, did he? She sniffed the opening and regretted the tingle that stung her nose. Still, it smelled sweet...maybe it wasn't so bad. _Maybe it's like fire flakes,_ she thought, and took a little sip.

The carbonation was a surprise, but in a pleasant sense. Spicy yet cold, it was different from fire flakes and much more refreshing. "Oh, it's good," she admitted as she lowered the can. "Thanks."

Kiba smirked. "Don't mention it."

"How's your stomach feeling?" Hinata chimed in, index fingers tapping together shyly. "It must have left a bruise..."

"It's okay," she replied, looking away from Kiba; the humiliation was still too fresh in her mind. "I hardly feel anything."

"I can give you some aspirin, if you'd like," Hinata added.

"That's nice of you, Hinata," Kurenai remarked as she stepped out from the shop. "But it's fine, I gave her some at home already."

"Ah, okay..." The young Hyuga looked down at her feet, tapped her fingers together some more, and made as if to turn away. Every so often, however, her pale eyes would flit over to Kiba.

Kiba noticed and fidgeted where he stood. "Uh, sensei," he began.

Kurenai raised a brow. "Yes?"

"Um, if we're not gonna do anything later...could we, uh...take her around the village?"

"Who? Sacora?"

"Well, who else?" he mumbled uncomfortably.

Sacora frowned and looked to Kurenai in confusion. The woman seemed surprised at first, and then thoughtful. "Well," she drawled out, "I suppose you could...but bring her back by seven. You all remember the way to my apartment?" She gave them brief directions anyway, much to Kiba's annoyance. "All right then. Have fun."

The four of them were silent in the wake of her absence until Shino spoke up. "I have to head home early today, so I'll just walk a bit with you guys."

"Eh, okay, guess we can head by your clan later..." Kiba sniffed and turned towards Sacora. "So...Sakura? Sa _ko_ ra? Sako–"

She realized only now that she was left alone with the three genin. "No, Sah- _cor_ -uh," she corrected.

"Yeah, whatever," he waved away. "Just drink your soda and follow us. We're gonna show you the best part of the village first."

"And what's that?"

He flashed her a toothy grin. "Hokage Rock, of course!"

"Don't people usually save the best for last?" Shino asked.

"Oh, shut up!"

And so they set off.

* * *

"...like I was saying, you _could've_ flanked like a normal person, but _nooo,_ you just had to rush head-on!"

"Well sor _ry,_ I was just..."

"You let the frickin' cat get away! Now we might have to continue this stupid mission tomorrow! Ugh," Ino groaned, "Sakura wasn't kidding when she said it was a pain in the–"

Asuma interrupted her with a cough and pointed look.

"What a drag," Shikamaru sighed. "Can't the both of you just shut up for once?"

"Oh, as if _you_ care–"

Asuma closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to block out their bickering. The other genin teams had their own conflicts, he was sure, but it often felt as though he got stuck with the most cantankerous combination of them all.

"Okay, okay," he intervened when Ino wouldn't relent. "I'll take you all out to Yakiniku tonight, even if we don't find the cat. How 'bout that?"

"Sweet!" Choji cheered. "C'mon Ino, even you can't argue with that."

"It's always food with you, Choji," she huffed irritably, though her displeasure appeared to have been taken down a peg. "Sensei, I swear, if we get stuck with this mission _one more time..._ " She trailed off and paused, a rare occurrence for her. Asuma stopped as well and then saw what had caught her eye. "Hey," she started, "what's Team Eight doing with... _her_?"

"Who?" Shikamaru frowned, and then he saw them. Kiba, leading the way, pointing at their surroundings and talking animatedly; Hinata, trailing happily along and making occasional commentary; Shino, stalking silently behind them all; and then finally, a complete stranger. "The one in red?"

"So my dad was on this mission, right?" Ino began, voice dipping conspiratorially. "And he found this weird girl in the woods...said her head was full of strange memories...she was kidnapped by a cult or something. When he found her, it looked like the place had been blown up, but she was okay. No other clues, just her, a scroll, and a bunch of ash. Dad thinks she did it."

"Well how d'you know it's her over there?" Choji challenged. "Maybe it's just some chick with a strange fashion sense."

"'Cause I saw her in the hospital, dummy," Ino said with a roll of her eyes. "But she wasn't wearing that tacky outfit then. We were going to deliver some flowers to Grandma and Dad stopped by her room before we left...he wouldn't tell me about it at first, but then he said I could know because she'd been interrogated."

 _Well, shoot._ Asuma didn't think he'd be reminded of that mission so soon. He heard some bits and pieces from Kurenai since then, but it was mostly in relation to how quiet and bad with technology the girl was. "I was on that mission too, by the way," he told them. "Thanks for the credit."

Choji and Shikamaru exchanged glances at this sudden information. "So, like...did she do it?" Choji asked at last. "Did she blow the forest up?"

"How am I supposed to know?" he countered with a chortle. "Mystery's not been solved yet. Anyway, Kurenai-sensei's looking after her for now, so that's probably why she's with Team Eight. It _is_ a bit strange that Kurenai isn't with them though..." He rubbed his bearded chin in thought. "Why don't we go see for ourselves? Give her good impressions, now."

He led them across the street to cut Team Eight off in their path. With a merry whistle, he pretended not to notice Kurenai's genin until he was within earshot.

"...and that's the dango shop," Kiba was saying. "Don't tell me you don't know what dango is, too?"

Asuma threw his arm up in greeting and interrupted the tour. "Hey, Kiba! Hinata, Shino...what're you all up to out here? Kurenai let you off early?"

The three of them knew him, of course, having crossed paths with his team before and even training together occasionally. Their guest, however, was thrown off guard and ducked between the trio warily.

"O-oh, good afternoon, Asuma-sensei," Hinata greeted first with a polite bow. "Kurenai-sensei gave us permission to show Sacora around..."

"Sacora, is it? Nice to meet you," Asuma smiled. "I'm Asuma. These here are Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji," delivered with a pat on the head for each name announced.

"Oh, hello," she said as brightly as she could, but Asuma could tell it was strained.

"What're you guys doing?" Kiba asked them.

"Trying to complete our mission," Shikamaru said with a sigh. "It's the one with the runaway cat..."

"No way!" he laughed. "You guys're _still_ looking for it? I would've finished the whole thing ages ago!"

"That's 'cause you have a dog," Choji pouted. "Would've been faster if we had a dog."

"No it wouldn't," Ino interjected. "Things would be _worse_ if we had a dog. Dogs and cats hate each other, remember?"

As they bantered, Asuma couldn't help but notice Sacora's baffled gaze fixed on Ino in particular. Shino appeared to notice as well, and inquired about it before he could. "What's wrong?" the Aburame asked her.

"Nothing," she said at first, but then hesitated. "Um...she has yellow hair."

Ino broke off from the conversation and gave Sacora a weird look. "It's called being blonde. Why, have you never seen a blonde before?"

Sacora pursed her lips, but Kiba ended up answering for her. "You don't know half of it! She's never had soda before, never had chocolate, never heard of dango...she even thought the people on the TVs in the electronics shop window were speaking to her!"

"H-hey," she protested, "a moving image _did_ speak to me before, when I was being questioned..."

"Yeah, but did you used to live under a rock or what?"

Ino shared a glance with her teammates, raising a confused brow. "Geez," she murmured to them, "if that's how she reacts to blondes, wait 'til she sees Sakura..."

"This chick is weird," Choji agreed.

"What a drag," Shikamaru sighed.

 _How...interesting._ Asuma fought the urge to chuckle and decided that he'd heard enough, for now. "We'd love to stay and chat, but we've got a cat to catch. Isn't that right, Ino-Shika-Cho?" The question was met with a chorus of groans, much to his amusement. "See you all around, Team Eight. Tell your sensei I said hi. Take care, Sacora," he added with a little salute, and ushered his weary team back into the streets. _You'll need it._

* * *

Shino had turned down the path that led to his clan compound, so it was just the three of them as they plodded along to Hokage Rock. The sun was starting to cast the village in a more orange hue, but Kiba felt as though he had barely scratched Konoha's surface with their little tour today. That was what he loved most about Konoha; you could spend a day wandering its streets, yet you would not be able to claim that you had explored it all. Not even after twelve years, it seemed, as he still came across nooks and crannies that he and Akamaru had never sniffed out before.

"So whaddyou think?" he asked Sacora pompously, taking pride in the awed way she gazed about the village. "Konoha's bigger than where you came from, isn't it?"

"No it isn't. I mean...I don't know how big Konoha is for sure, but Capital City is pretty big, too."

"But Konoha's probably cooler," Kiba insisted.

"It's different," was all she was willing to admit, much to his annoyance.

"W-what was Capital City like?" Hinata asked curiously. "If you don't mind telling."

She certainly didn't, as the deep intake of breath indicated. "First of all," she began, "Capital City is located on the largest island in the western region of the Fire Nation. You can only enter it through a harbor that leads into the Royal Plaza. _That_ leads into the Harbor City, and a long road behind it takes you up a volcano to the Royal Caldera City, which sits right at the top."

"Isn't that two different cities?" Kiba asked with a frown.

"It's one city with three different districts," Sacora corrected him.

Hinata's eyes sparkled in wonderment as she imagined the city. "That's amazing! Where did you live?"

"At the top of the volcano. That's where the noble families live. The royal family lives right at the center," she added with a proud glow.

"D-did you ever get to see the harbor?"

"Quite a bit. My father was a captain in the navy until recently, so we would go down to the harbor sometimes to greet him when he came home."

"I've always wanted to see the ocean," Hinata breathed. "You're so lucky."

Kiba scowled at this, unable to believe that Hinata was falling for all of it so readily. _She's probably talking out of her ass, for all we know._ _I mean, 'Fire Nation'? That's like a big ripoff of the Land of Fire!_ "I bet your Capital City doesn't have anything as impressive as the Hokage Rock," he retorted, albeit a little more affronted than he intended to.

"You've yet to see the Great Gates of Azulon," she countered. "But you haven't seen it and I haven't seen your Hokage Rock, so we can't judge that."

"Oh yeah? Why don't you look up now?"

She listened to him and craned her head back at just the right moment. Though she probably didn't realize it, they'd arrived at the Hokage Tower and stood at the peak spot with which to see the Rock unobstructed by rooftops. It was not a perfect view, but it was the most perfect when standing at ground level.

And she was mesmerized. Kiba listened to her surprised gasp with mounting pleasure and crossed his arms smugly as she stared at the four stone heads, their empty eyes gazing watchfully over the village. The three of them were dwarfed in comparison, mere ants in the eye of the nearest carved visage.

"Those're the faces of all our Hokage," he proclaimed. "The strongest shinobi of the village."

"Which one's the first?"

"Left to right."

"Ah...so this is the current Hokage," Sacora guessed, pointing at the rightmost head. "He has a lot of hair."

"N-no...the Third Hokage is the current one," Hinata corrected, directing her to the third head. "The Fourth Hokage..."

Sacora brought her gaze down to the shy Hyuga, blinking at her curiously. "What happened to him?"

"A demon attacked the village twelve years ago," Kiba explained. "The Fourth Hokage sacrificed his life in the battle to save everyone. The Third went back into leadership and stayed Hokage ever since. This here's where he lives and works," he added, pointing to the Tower in front of them.

"Oh..." He was glad to see she understood the gravity of the tale, as her thoughtful eyes showed. "So a demon made it out of the spirit world to attack your village?"

Kiba scratched the back of his neck confusedly. "Uh...I guess you could say that...though I don't really know where they come from. They just come, I guess."

"That sounds dangerous..."

"It doesn't happen often," Hinata assured her. "The attack twelve years ago was...rare."

They stood in contemplative silence for a while, as if in respect for the Hokages past; at least, that was how Kiba felt. Hinata could probably relate, but what Sacora thought was a mystery. _Bet she doesn't have anything half as cool to say about her City,_ he thought. _If her skills are any indication about how her people fight..._ well, they weren't as deserving of respect, in his view.

Akamaru suddenly barked in his ear, breaking him out of those thoughts. "What, boy?" he asked, tilting his head. "It's half past six now? Guess we gotta take you back, then," he said to Sacora.

"O-oh, I have to head home in that case," Hinata said sadly.

"Oh yeah, your clan's on the opposite side of Sensei's apartment. Want us to walk you back first?"

"It's okay," she assured him with a smile. "I don't want to make you late."

"Whatever you say, then."

Hinata parted with them a little ways before the street to Shino's clan, so she had not been able to follow them for long. Sacora seemed sad to see Hinata go, which came as no surprise. Hinata was nice to just about everyone. Kiba thought that was a pretty stupid trait, but then again he didn't blame Sacora for not liking him either. _Well I mean, she's pretty weird,_ he thought. _You don't just talk to weird people like that off the bat. Who knows what sort of stuff she's keeping from us?_

"You talk to your dog," Sacora suddenly said. Akamaru let out a questioning whine, to which she explained, "He...'told' you the time..."

"Every Inuzuka can communicate with their ninken," he shrugged.

"Ninken?"

"Ninja dogs."

Her eyes widened in disbelief. "Animals can be ninja too?"

"Well, yeah, if you train them to." But she wouldn't stop staring at him like that, and it was then he realized...she thought he was weird, too. She probably thought the whole village was weird, and the shinobi within it, down to the Hokage. The idea snubbed him a little. "So what's the deal with your people?" he asked, seeing if he could level the playing field. "The, uh...the benders?"

"What do you mean?"

His hands gestured about in an attempt to grasp a clearer meaning, but failed. "Well, y'know...what do they do? Are they like shinobi or something, or...?"

She didn't seem to have much luck in answering him either. "They can be warriors and soldiers...they can be builders, too, if they're Earthbenders or Waterbenders...oh, and Waterbenders can be healers. It really depends."

"Oh, okay." _Well, that was a lame question._ He didn't attempt any more like it and continued the rest of the way in silence.

They finally approached Kurenai's apartment building. As they came close, they saw the red-eyed sensei leaning against the railing of her floor's corridor and waved back to her when she waved. "Kurenai-sensei doesn't let anything slip by her, huh?" Sacora remarked amusedly.

"Definitely not," Kiba agreed.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but apparently thought better of it. He walked on by, thinking of nothing more than what might be for dinner that night, when she suddenly settled on, "Thanks for showing me around."

Kiba paused in his tracks. "Oh, don't mention it."

Sacora smiled briefly and looked off to the side. "It helped me feel better."

Now that was something he didn't expect. "Well, uh..." He blinked. "Glad I could help..."

"Yeah..." She pursed her lips, as if it had been an uncomfortable thing to admit, and then turned away to go up the stairs. "Bye."

Akamaru yipped after her and turned to look up at Kiba with a lick to the chin. "Bye," he reciprocated. _Maybe she's not so bad_ , he then decided, and walked home feeling a little less guarded about the matter than before.

* * *

 **Notes**

Guest Ridtom\- Thank you so much! I've fixed the error in the corresponding chapter. Please, if you see other such mistakes in my fic, don't hesitate to point them out. I do my best to gather info from the wikis but sometimes that's not quite enough (see Ridtom's review for more detail.) As for your worry on combat comparisons, I hope this chapter somewhat answered that.

The wiki notes that firebending is more offensive than defensive, although defensive maneuvers can be created through other offensive maneuvers (i.e., the fire barrier). Furthermore, "a militaristic Fire Nation twisted this into firebending being fueled by rage, hatred, and anger". Just something of a fun fact to accompany the spar.

"Sako/Sacora" - I'd actually created Sacora long before I knew about Naruto; she was originally an ATLA exclusive OC and Sacora sounded like a nice tribal name. I thought of changing it when my friends got me into the crossover because of the potential syllable clash with Sakura (at least, on a Japanese tongue), but couldn't find any substitute that sounded right to me so I decided to keep it as is.

Now I'm not sure anymore about the accuracy of the Konoha map I've been looking at since a bunch of others show up with slightly varying locations for certain places, but the Aburame compound sits quite a ways to the right off the main street leading to the Hokage Rock, with the entrance to its street not too far from the Hokage Tower. A little after that (I guess some 500-ish meters?) is the street leading to the Hyuga clan. Hence the reason why Shino left for home first & Hinata did not walk for long when turning back from the Hokage Tower.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** I know, I'm late! But as of Jan 24th, I made this fic available on the SpaceBattles forum, where I'll also be posting art directly. It's a general fiction forum with a pretty cool writing, gaming, and roleplaying community. If you have the time, especially if you like writing/reading fics, I suggest you check it out. Special credit to Recycler for introducing me :).

* * *

Kurenai looked up from the rice pot in surprise, startled by the little tap on her wrist.

"Here, sensei, let me help you," the sheepish girl beside her offered, casting her eyes down at the pot as Kurenai stared.

"Well." She let Sacora take the rice paddle and went about setting the natto and leftover vegetables on the table. "Someone's more lively today."

Sacora said nothing as she filled the bowls and brought them over. But after they were both seated, Kurenai had just lifted the first bit of shiitake with her chopsticks when she was accosted with, "Thank you for the food."

Her dark brow went up, further intrigued. "No problem. Gives me a better incentive to eat healthy, anyways."

But this new behavior didn't stop at breakfast. When they met up with Team Eight later in the village square, it wasn't Hinata or Kiba who gave the first word of greeting, but Sacora herself. "Good morning, everyone," she'd said with a smile.

"G-good morning!" Hinata returned happily, while Shino simply nodded.

"'Sup?" Kiba added alongside Akamaru's bark.

"Huh?" Sacora tilted her head in confusion. "But supper isn't until later..."

And as they went on their morning training routine, Kurenai didn't have to remind her to stick close. She actually _wanted_ to sit within speaking distance of the genin, even striking up conversation with Hinata during breaks. Kiba would chime in now and then with jokes, thankfully less abrasive than before, and then Shino preferred to listen rather than speak – which was nothing new – but even he didn't fail to acknowledge Sacora occasionally in their various chats.

 _I almost feel bad for not including her in the training exercises,_ Kurenai remarked to herself. It was a dramatic change compared to just yesterday. She could only think of one thing that had spurred it on, and accosted Kiba about it privately when they went on their lunch break: "Good call on the tour. She's not half as sulky as she used to be, and I think she actually likes you guys now."

He paused in his chewing and suddenly became interested in the grass beneath his feat. She swore his cheeks turned pink beneath his facial markings as he mumbled, "It was all Hinata's idea..."

Kurenai couldn't help but smile, and gave his shoulder a hearty pat. "You all did a great job yesterday, that's for sure."

She enjoyed the pleasure of observing this newfound peace for another two days, a refreshing parallel to the adolescent sulkiness; and then another new development wormed its way into their routine.

"I got the call from Iruka this morning," Kurenai announced. "Kakashi's back, and he wants to see Sacora after Academy classes are done for the day."

At this, Sacora exchanged glances with Hinata, a flash of trepidation as well as dismay passing through her features.

"But don't worry!" Kurenai chirruped. "You won't be on your own for long. I'll be back as soon as I drop her off."

"Ha!" Kiba scoffed. "You act like you're gonna be missed!"

"Oh?" Shino interjected. "If it's not sensei, then who else would it be?"

Kurenai smirked at Kiba's sudden silence and the little giggle from Hinata that compounded it. "Anyway, I'd better see progress when I get back," she went on. "I've signed us up for another D mission, so no slacking."

"Yes, sensei," the three of them assured her in groaning unison.

"Come now, we're getting rusty. Finish it and maybe I'll bag us a C."

In the midst of this, Sacora raised a questioning hand. "Um, Kurenai-sensei, how long will I be there for?"

Kurenai looked over at her reassuringly. "I'm picking you up as soon as they're done. But the examination itself?" She crossed her arms and shook her head. "Not long at all. The Sharingan is known for being lightning fast, after all."

* * *

Iruka looked up from the podium upon hearing the rattle of the classroom doors. He half expected it to be Daikoku, ready to crack some joke or pun about one of the day's lesson plans, but perked up in surprise to find his visitor none other than the young firebender. "Ah, come in!" he greeted as he put his papers down. "How've you been? Please, have a seat. Kakashi-sensei's running a little late, I'm afraid!"

"I've been well," Sacora answered pleasantly. She stood awhile by the door at a loss for what to do, eventually picking out a seat in the front row. As she settled down, Iruka could see her inquisitive gaze plastered on the chalkboard behind him, still etched with the white scrawls and eraser swipes of the previous lesson.

"Bit of a strange sight, isn't it?" Iruka remarked. "Your Academy's classrooms must have looked different."

"They were bigger, and had more windows." She tilted her head in thought, before adding, "But there weren't any big boards like this."

"Really?" he asked. "How did your teachers manage, then?

"They dictated the lesson."

"Must have been hard to follow along."

"It wasn't so hard if you listened well." Sacora let her gaze linger on the board a little longer, and Iruka went back to paper sorting when silence enveloped them again. "Sensei," she suddenly interrupted, "what does that say?"

Iruka looked up and turned to the wall scroll she was pointing at. "Ah, that?" he asked. "It's a rather old poem. It says:

 _'The village of my youth is gone,_  
 _New faces meet my gaze;_  
 _But still the blossoms at thy gate,_  
 _Whose perfume scents the ways,_  
 _Recall my childhood's days.'"_

Her eyes traced the characters wistfully as he read it, and he could see her fingers tapping in conjunction as she counted the meter. It was then he remembered that the poor girl couldn't read hiragana. "Do you like poems, Sacora?"

She stopped what she was doing to give him a bashful nod.

"We don't have an extensive collection, but we do have some poetry books that aid with phonetics," he ventured to say. Her eyes lit up at this, and the teacher within him couldn't help but feel excitement at the thought of another eager learner. _Maybe...if I can get the Lord Third's approval, she could come here for lessons..._

"I'd love to see them, if you'd let me," she said hopefully.

A knock came at the door before he could respond, however, and a nonchalant voice sighed as it slid open, "Sorry I'm late..."

* * *

Kakashi Hatake was a strange man. He seemed relatively young despite a head full of gray hair, though all Sacora could make of his face was a deadpan eye; a black mask completely concealed his lower face and a sloping headband covered his other eye, leaving only that tiny quarter of his features visible. She wondered what disfigurement, if any, warranted such cover, when she remembered that staring was rude and he hadn't been greeted yet.

"So that's her," he commented before she even stood up.

"Yup," Iruka confirmed, shuffling his papers together in finality before stepping off the podium. "So how was your mission? Team Seven did well, from what I heard."

"It was fine. They're waiting outside."

His passive and indirect manner reminded Sacora of Hayate. But if she thought Kakashi was strange, she found his genin even stranger. She followed the two men out of the Academy into a smaller training ground beside it, and it was there she found the three by a training dummy; a boy with bright yellow hair in an equally bright orange jumpsuit, a pink-haired girl ( _Pink!_ she'd fought the urge to gasp), and a brooding raven-haired boy dressed in blue; by far, the most colorful set of genin she'd ever seen.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were how Iruka introduced them, and the moment Naruto laid eyes on Iruka, he jumped for joy and hugged the unsuspecting sensei. "Iruka-sensei!" he exclaimed. "You should've been there! I was _so_ cool! I kicked some serious Mist ninja butt, I used my clones against Zabuza, heck, I even saved _Sasuke_!"

"All right, all right," Iruka groaned as he extricated himself. But far from being annoyed, he seemed amused, as if this were a familiar feature of their relationship. "Wait, Zabuza?"

"...I'll tell you later," Kakashi promised.

Sakura furrowed her pink brows together in consternation. "Ugh, Naruto, can you get any more embarrassing? You're not a hero just 'cause you saved him once. _Newsflash:_ you're still a knucklehead!" She turned to Sacora apologetically. "Ignore him; he's not right in the head, as you can see."

"Hey!"

Sacora smiled politely and offered a timid, "It's all right..." _Are all the genin this odd?_ she wondered. But more distracting than that was a strange sensation swirling in her belly as she looked them over. _Funny, I haven't had any trouble with the food here...i_ _s it the natto?_

Kakashi cleared his throat, recapturing her attention. "Now that we've gotten that out of the way...are you ready, Sacora?"

She turned to the gray-haired jonin and gave him something of a nod.

"Good." He then directed her towards a more open spot until they faced each other unobstructed. Iruka and the genin were swept off to the side, spectators for now. Once they were settled, Kakashi slid a hand up towards his headband, lifting it ever-so-slightly, and Sacora could see a hint of scar tissue splitting down his cheekbone. "Now, when I activate the Sharingan," he instructed her, "I want you to come at me."

She jolted in surprise. "H-huh?"

"Come at me, as if you're fighting. I won't retaliate," he promised, and lifted the headband off his eye.

It revealed an angry, blood-red iris that almost seemed to glare at her. It was difficult to tell from where she was standing, but the iris also appeared to have been punctured with two tiny black shapes. Sacora fought the urge to cover her own eye at the thought of the injury that might have caused it, and it was only last minute that she gave a startled punch of fire as her focus struggled to switch between the eye and the sensei.

He jumped away from the attack so fast, it was almost as if he had simply flickered away. "I'm sure you can do better than that," he encouraged.

Remembering the last time she'd squared off with a ninja, though, Sacora was hesitant to go all out. She kept her initial attacks measured and probing, slowly circling around him yet maintaining a safe distance that she hoped wouldn't be breached anytime soon. But he was true to his word, and being nothing more than a frustratingly elusive target, she found herself coming after him in increasingly bold attacks that eventually brought her within touching distance.

Right in the heat of it, a firm hand slapped itself over her wrist, paralyzing her with its suddenness. Sacora looked beside her to find Kakashi gazing serenely down at her hand, both eyes half-lidded in a lazy expression despite the hostile gleam she still perceived from the red one.

"Well done," he murmured, and released her wrist. He fixed his headband back over his red eye and turned to the others. "What you're looking it is a highly specialized form of kekkei genkai."

"Kekkei genkai?" Sacora asked, confused.

"A bloodline ability," Kakashi explained.

"So it's not something you can replicate?" Iruka asked.

Kakashi slipped a hand into a pocket and rubbed his chin with the other. "It's more than that. How do I explain...it's not really jutsu in the sense of molding and releasing chakra. It's something that's so in tune with her physique, she could use it as naturally as, say, breathing. That's an overly simplified way to put it, of course, but the bottom line is there's no need for her to devote as much energy into putting together a jutsu."

"But that's still energy being expended, isn't it, sensei?" Sakura interrupted. "And fire itself is a combustion of energy. Even if it's as you said, it should still take a lot of stamina to create?"

"True," he nodded. "That's still something that happens; but in her case it's a little...different." He crossed his arms together. "Recall that chakra is created when physical energy and spiritual energy mold together. That allows us to perform various jutsu; but we each have a limit in how far our chakra reserves can go. Use up all of it and you run the risk of chakra exhaustion, or worse, death."

"Yeah, yeah, we know this already!" Naruto groaned.

Kakashi ignored him. "Here, however, we see someone with no chakra reserves at all." As shock registered on the faces of his genin, he held a demonstrative hand towards Sacora. "The basis of this lies in how her energy is distributed. While the pathway system is the same, the tenets of cultivating energy to mold are different. Actually, the word 'mold' here is inapplicable. What happens is there's a continuous flow of energy that can be directed to perform the moves you've seen just now. How? Her physical energy _is_ bending."

Iruka nodded thoughtfully. "I see. So it's physical energy with an elemental affinity. Then, from what Hinata saw..."

"The act of bending itself doesn't wear her down," Kakashi supplied, "which is why her 'chi' returns to the body. Her stamina, then, would be dependent on her own endurance. In that manner, her physical energy is more streamlined than a shinobi's. But there's a serious drawback." He looked down at Sacora. "What other abilities can you perform besides bending?"

She felt her face grow hot as she averted her eyes from the genin. "I can't. There's just...bending."

"Exactly. Because her power is dependent on physical energy that rebounds on itself, she has no structure with which to perform anything beyond bending. Where we can use chakra to do such things as walk on water, increase our speed, or jump to high heights, she's limited only to what her bending can accomplish."

"So that's why you can't copy it," Sasuke surmised. "It's not just a kekkei genkai; it's a system we can't use in the first place."

"Very good, Sasuke," Kakashi praised. "For us, an emphasis in physical energy relates to taijutsu. An elemental release and affinity are more along the lines of ninjutsu. To restructure that is not an easy feat. The same goes for her, though it's hard to say whether that could have been different with a shinobi upbringing."

Sacora perked up at the thought. "Really? How?"

"Everyone has chakra and the ability to wield it," Kakashi explained. "It's just a matter of training. Not all choose to, though. Bending, on the other hand, sounds hereditary. Am I right?" When she nodded, he continued, "It's possible that you could have been trained to wield it like chakra if the basis of your training were different; the pathways of your chi are similar to ours, after all. But it could also be that that's how your peoples' bodies were evolved to perform."

Before Sacora could get another word in, however, Iruka approached Kakashi with an inquiring look. A hushed exchange passed between them that she was unable to hear, and the last thing they gave before going out of earshot was a statement that they would be finished with their discussion in a moment.

* * *

"Ha! Chakra without any jutsu? _Laaaame_!"

"Quit it!" Sakura scolded with a hand swipe Naruto's way. "She's right _there,_ you doofus."

Sacora crossed her arms tighter and kicked at the dirt as she attempted to ignore the less-than-subtle remarks. The analysis Kakashi-sensei gave had provided something of an idea as to why jutsu was different, but it still stung to hear that bending was so limited. _How is any of this fair?_ she lamented. _Bending is a sacred art passed down from generations...but here, anyone can do what these ninja can by just training...and lots of them are my age!_

"Hey!"

She looked up to find Naruto standing before her, his smug and impetuous face split into a mischievous grin. The roiling in her stomach intensified the more she stared at the strange, whisker-like lines etched on his cheeks. "Yes?"

"What's up with your chakra? Didn't your school know better than to teach it to you like that?"

Sacora frowned. "It's not chakra. It's _chi_."

"Chakra, chi, same thing, isn't it?"

"Well...I don't know." She huffed and turned away. "Go ask your sensei."

"Sucks, though," he went on, much to her annoyance. "I don't know _how_ you benders can live without it! Ninjutsu is like, super cool. So you can't even make a basic clone? Man, you wouldn't last a second against an Academy student..."

"You sound pretty sure of yourself," she remarked irritably.

"Ha! You're looking at the future number one ninja of the village!" he boasted. "That's right, this bad boy's gonna be Hokage one day, believe it! Bet I could take down an army of benders _easy_ –"

 _Fwoom_

"Aah!" He flailed in alarm at the small fireball that flew past his head, backed a step, and then tripped with a hard _thump_ to the ground on his bum. As he bewailed his fate, Sakura once again took up the task of chiding him while Sasuke dismissively breathed the word "idiot".

Sacora released her fist and lowered her arm back to her side. _So_ _there_ is _someone here that I can beat_...and he happened to be the least brightest of the genin she'd met. _How reassuring._

It would take a lot of work if she wanted to ever compete on their level, that much was certain. And from what Kakashi had said, there seemed to be hope. Though it might be too late to rework the entirety of her training, perhaps it could be enough to replicate the mysterious power of the scroll and return home once and for all.

* * *

"Inoichi, sir. We have tested the jutsu on the scroll, as you instructed."

"And?"

"It produced...nothing."

 _Of course._ He had expected that, what with all the moaning and groaning the Force had given him about the formula. Still, he had pushed for the analytics team to decipher the scroll completely before giving it a whirl. "Hold onto it until the next moon comes," Inoichi instructed. "We want to be sure it does nothing before writing it off completely. Bring her in try it, even." _I know what I saw, after all._

"Yes, sir. I have the report here if you wish to see it."

Inoichi nodded and pat a stack of documents for the report to be laid on, all the while continuing to write on the paperwork he'd been occupied with. "Have the firebender's samples come in yet?"

"Yes, sir," the chunin before him repeated. "In fact, I was just about to hand in the results."

"About time." Inoichi clicked and dropped his pen to the table, reclining back in his seat with arms crossed. "So, what have they found?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary, sir." She opened up the manila folder and leafed through some pages. "All levels and counts present as normal. The results are those of a healthy individual."

" _All_ levels?" Inoichi echoed, frowning. "No blood pH changes? No high carboxyhemoglobin or methemoglobin levels?"

"No, sir. None at all."

 _But she was found face-down in a pile of ash, and these samples were drawn immediately after hospital admittance!_ Not only that, she had been surrounded by burning wood matter and smoke for a long time. That honestly should have been enough to deplete her blood's oxygen levels long before he and the other jonin had gotten to her; for there to be nothing at all, not even a trace of particles from the ash or smoke, was highly suspicious. He had thought something was off when he heard she was discharged so shortly after awakening; "These results can't be possible," he murmured to himself, "not unless her body is able to diffuse oxygen and expel carbon monoxide at an _insanely_ high rate..." And that was quite a stretch, even for someone whose abilities centered around fire.

"As for the ash content analysis," the chunin continued, "the samples you gave were largely composed of plant matter. However..."

Inoichi looked up, brow raised.

"...some particles resembling those found in cremated human remains were detected."

 _Oh? Is that so?_ All he responded with, however, was a simple, "Hmm." He accepted the folder and set it on top of his previous paperwork before dismissing the chunin with a wave. Once he was alone again did he open it to study the first page of results, eyes scanning through the medical jargon and numbers with growing interest.

* * *

 **Notes**

richboylion\- Noted and fixed. I'd gotten the techniques confused because of how often Naruto performed the Shadow Clone (i.e., basic Clone Jutsu & Shadow Clone Jutsu are two totally different things). Thanks for the heads up!

I fixed up the mind probe in Chapter 2 to imply rape rather than state it out, due to reader suggestions. Then I omitted the "all Airbenders were monks" statement after remembering that Fire Nation students operated under the belief that the Air Nation had a formal military (source: episode where Aang goes to Fire Nation school).

Changes in blood pH can be caused by interference in the diffusion or use of oxygen. Smoke inhalation can cause microscopic particles to get trapped in the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Carboxyhemoglobin and methemoglobin levels are often tested for in smoke inhalation victims; high carboxyhemoglobin indicates a high level of inhaled carbon monoxide & methemoglobin is a form of hemoglobin that comprises 1-2% of a person's hemoglobin, but when present in high levels indicates exposure to various chemicals. Also, it is unlikely in real life for human ash to be found/determined in a content analysis if Sacora's fire cremated the cultists immediately. That would require an insanely hot temperature which destroys DNA and makes the alternative, isotrope analysis, difficult; hence the vague yet still forceful wording summarizing the report. All science stuff taken from WebMD, Wikipedia, and the science subreddit.

The poem (not of my own invention) is verse no. 35 from _A Hundred Verses from Old Japan (The Hyakunin-isshu),_ composed by Ki no Tsurayuki (872-945) and translated by William Porter circa 1909.


	7. Chapter 7

As the last of the students filed out of the classroom and the final goodbyes were said for the day, Iruka let out a sigh of satisfaction and set to erasing the blackboard. Gone were the characters he'd scrawled in his crabby handwriting, down went the diagrams and figures he'd drawn. All of it cleared in a murky white swipe to set a clean slate for the next lesson to come.

Behind him, the doors slid open yet again.

"I'm here, Iruka-sensei," a young voice pierced the silence not too long after. "I hope I'm not too late..."

"No, not at all," he reassured, and turned to the intruder with a pleasant smile. "Have a seat, Sacora."

* * *

 _"'Bright my heart shall burn,_  
 _Brighter than my pyre;_  
 _For somewhere deep within me,_  
 _Burns the Will of Fire.'"_

"Very good! You've done much better with the hiragana reading today, and your written copy looks great. Once we finish this, I'll teach you katakana – which is another syllabary we use to write foreign words – and soon I think we can brush up on how much kanji you know."

Sacora beamed happily at Iruka as she basked in his praise. "Thank you, sensei."

He reached over and carefully teared at the perforated paper of her notebook. "I'll take this, if you don't mind"–for he intended to use it as an example of good penmanship for the younger students–"and you can go ahead and copy down the next poem."

She hummed a happy tune as she opened the poetry book to the appropriate page and picked up her pencil to copy down the first character.

He supposed a fair amount of speed in her progress was to be exptected, as she was mostly literate already, but he was pleased at times with how quickly she grasped the hiragana syllabary. Any initial confusion between similar characters was cleared relatively soon, and her knack for creative assonance was discovered when he found the short poems she penned in between her lines of penmanship practice.

 _Overall, an exceptional literary student,_ he evaluated of her as he tucked the paper away. _Honestly, the most trouble she's had was getting used to the pencil._ It had been a bit of a hassle showing her the proper way to hold one, and she still retained some over-handedness from using brushes, but she took to the utensil nonetheless and delighted in the fact that it had an end that could erase her mistakes on the spot.

Suddenly, Iruka caught her raising her hand from the corner of his eye. "Yes?"

"I noticed, sensei, that there's a common theme in many of the poems you give me."

"Oh? How so?"

"This 'Will of Fire'," she said. "I thought it was just a metaphor, but it seems to be more important. You mentioned it before, too, when you told me about shinobi. What is it, exactly?"

"Ah, the Will of Fire..." Iruka rested his hands atop his papers and noted, cheerily, the abundant afternoon sunlight warming up the room. "It's a philosophy founded from the beginning of Konoha. Its basic principle is that the village is like a large family that every Konoha shinobi should strive to cherish and protect."

Her eyes grew thoughtful as she slowed a bit in her writing. "Cherish and protect..."

"A little something I like to ask the younger students," Iruka went on, "is if they have any loved ones they want to protect. Family, friends, a pet, even...if they say yes, then I tell them that _that_ is the Will of Fire manifesting, right there. There is no one too small or weak to feel the Will in their hearts. Plenty of people think it's reserved for shinobi only, but I believe that everyone is capable of feeling it, as long as they have that desire to protect."

A contemplative silence enveloped them as she ruminated on his words. He could see the inquisitive cogs turning in her head, the thoughts furrowing her brow as her hand slowed to a stop.

"Father always told me that greatness comes from success," she said at last. "He wanted us to grow from 'simple flames to great wildfires'. And at school we recite the 'March to Civilization' for the Fire Lord's victory in conquering the nations; the Will of Fire sounds...different."

 _So that's the sort of culture she comes from..._ It seemed hard to believe that both of theirs shared almost the same name. "Fire can do more than burn," Iruka pointed out.

She pursed her lips and continued writing from where she stopped. "Sensei," she piped up again, "what if the people you want to protect are gone?"

His eyes softened. "That's always tough," he sympathized. "I lost my parents at a young age. It was really difficult at first to think of anything beyond that pain, and I would try to push it down by making others laugh...but as I grew older, I realized I was never alone. There were people willing to reach out to me; I only had to ask." He remembered, fondly, that day the Lord Third had reached out to him. "Under the Will of Fire, no one, as long as they are part of the village, is left out or alone – the family will always be there for them, and in return, they will be there for the family."

"I see..." Her wrist turned with the completion of a round character, and her pencil tip flicked gently off the paper. She looked up at him and smiled. "That sounds nice."

* * *

Sacora paced about the schoolyard, one hand holding open a paperback book, the other waving in lazy motions as she ambled about. The breeze blew gently at her back and birds overhead peppered the air with occasional chatter, painting a picture of a perfectly relaxing day.

"Hard at work, I see?"

She jolted and looked up from the book. "Oh, hello, Mr. Teiji!"

The old man's face crinkled into an amused smile. "And a good afternoon to you too, Sacora." His head cocked to one side. "School has been over for a while. Why haven't you gone home yet?"

"I'm waiting for some friends to pick me up," she explained. "They should be coming soon." She squinted behind him to get a better look at some shapes moving down the path. "Oh, I think that's them."

He looked behind him and chuckled. "To be young again! Well, you kids have fun. Take care."

"Take care, Mr. Teiji," she returned, and watched him hobble away with a sheepish sense of relief. _I was almost afraid he'd ask more questions..._ She wondered if he remembered how he had mistaken her for a genin at first. Perhaps he had forgotten; it seemed likely, given his age.

"Yo! Still studying?" Kiba called out to her when he and his team finally approached.

Sacora stuffed the book away into a little bag Kurenai had given her. "Not anymore. I was just reading for fun."

"Oh, ew."

"H-how was your lesson today?" Hinata inquired as they walked out of the yard.

"It was good. Iruka-sensei liked my handwriting," she boasted.

"Ooh, handwriting!" Kiba rolled his eyes. "How exciting."

"Good handwriting is a virtue," Sacora argued. "You should see my calligraphy sometime; it got top marks back at the Royal Academy."

"If that's the case, Kiba's the least virtuous of us all," Shino remarked.

Sacora giggled at that, much to Kiba's chagrin. "Whatever," he huffed. "Good handwriting's not that important to a ninja, anyways."

"Then I hope to never rely on a written message from you during a mission," Shino rejoined.

This elicited a displeased scowl from the young Inuzuka. But rather than argue the point, Kiba's pout soon turned into a smirk. "Speaking of missions, we've got something to _really_ boast about this time. Sensei got us a C-rank!"

Sacora knew enough about missions now to understand a C was a step above the regular grind for Team Eight, no thanks to Kiba's constant complaining. "Oh! What will you be doing?"

"It's not as exciting as he makes it out to be," Shino assured her. "It's a simple escort mission; we'll be helping an elderly woman travel back to her home village. To go there and back takes within a day, until dusk at most if we leave first thing in the morning. The road we'll take is also very quiet."

"It's our first out of the village!" Kiba exclaimed. "Who knows? Maybe we'll get to see some bandit action."

Shino raised a skeptical brow. "That close to Konoha? I don't think so."

Sacora fiddled a bit with the strap of her bag as the implication set in. "So...I guess I won't be going with you..."

"Oh yeah, you aren't," Kiba realized. "Sucks, huh?"

 _You could try to be a little nicer about it,_ she complained inwardly. She was sure Kurenai-sensei had something arranged for her in their absence, but it bothered her more than a little that she was deadweight to them most of the time. Her reading lessons with Iruka were a refreshing change, but that was all they were; reading. She had not done any firebending since meeting Team Seven, and when she asked Iruka about potentially learning chakra techniques, his answer was not positive.

"I'm afraid that's not something we can help you with right now," he had said to her. "It'd have to be approved by the Hokage, and admission to the Academy requires proof of citizenship. I'll keep it in mind, though."

 _It's never going to happen, isn't it?_ she guessed. _At least, not from him..._

"Kurenai-sensei said you would be with Asuma-sensei's team while we're gone," Hinata mentioned, breaking her out of those thoughts.

"Hmm..." Sacora had seen them once or twice since the village tour during joint training sessions with Team Eight, and it seemed from those encounters that Kurenai was close in particular with Asuma. He seemed a cheery man thus far, more personable than Kakashi at least. "I'll see you all when you get back, then," she said with a shrug. "Good luck on the mission. And be safe," she added. "Especially if there might be bandits..."

" _They_ better be the ones watching out," Kiba declared, "'cuz when me and Akamaru are done with 'em, they'll wish they never crossed Team Eight!"

Sacora cleared her throat. "Akamaru and _I_."

"Aw, shut up!"

* * *

"Glad you could make it, Sacora," Asuma-sensei smiled. "You came at just the right time!"

Ino dragged a hand down her face and groaned. "Sensei, can you...not? This is the least exciting mission _ever_."

"Can we use that cat to finish it for us?" Choji whined.

Sacora looked uncertainly from genin to genin. "D-rank missions sound so dull. Is it really worth hiring a genin team to do something like chase rats out of an attic?"

Asuma shrugged. "Enjoy it while you can, kids; before you know it, you'll be lucky to snatch up a mission before another colleague does." He clapped his hands on Choji and Shikamaru's shoulders. "Let's get to it, and if you finish up in time, I'll take you to Ichiraku's for lunch."

"What a drag," Shikamaru mumbled.

The house they arrived at seemed the perfect nesting place for pests such as the rats they were hired to chase; old, dingy, and in sore need of repairs. The owner was a nonchalant woman to whom the house belonged in name thanks to a deceased relative, and who tossed them the keys with as much care as an old shoe; "Have it done before my buyer comes around," she said before marching off to the marketplace.

"You're going up there first," Ino decided as she pushed past Choji to enter the house.

"Whaaat?" he groaned. "Why can't Shikamaru do it? And why can't _you_?"

"I'm not going up some musty attic without knowing what's up there!" she exclaimed. "What if there's a lot of rat poop?"

"Let's just get the traps first," Shikamaru suggested. "She said they were in some closet down the hall."

Sacora stood off to the side as they went about their business. Asuma deemed the genin capable of completing the mission on their own and had gone off somewhere alone. When it came time to enter the attic, Shikamaru pulled down on the retractable stairs and released a cloud of dust upon his and his teammates' heads. Some coughing and one angry commotion later, Ino pushed Choji imperiously at the stairs.

"Hey!" he snapped, but clambered up the stairs anyway. Shikamaru followed, traps in hand, while Ino trailed behind only after both boys had gone up.

"It's so dark! Isn't there a light switch?" Ino asked after emerging into the musty space.

Shikamaru shook his head as he felt along the wall. "Can't find any." His foot bumped against a wooden box in the dark, and almost immediately, a little squeak pierced the air as a fat fuzzy shape scuttled across the floor.

Ino shrieked and nearly toppled into some boxes herself as she jumped back. " _Ew-ew-ew-ew-eeeewwwww_! Get it away from me!"

Shikamaru grimaced against the pitch of her voice and stumbled towards what seemed to be light cracking through closed shutters. He forced them open and took a deep breath of the fresh air that spilled through. "Okay guys, we've got some light here. Let's set up the traps around the corners, and Ino, try not to be so loud."

Choji pouted as he picked up a trap. "This is going to take forever," he lamented. "Isn't there some way to catch them faster?"

"What, are you hungry already?" Ino retorted.

"Yuck, why would I eat rats!?"

" _Guys,_ " Shikamaru interrupted in exasperation. "Seriously."

Ino sighed. "But Choji's not wrong. Who knows how many there are in here? Instead of hiring us, these people should've gotten cats!" A moving shadow darted across the periphery of her vision, causing her to scream again. "Even their shadows are gross!" Then, it clicked with her; "Wait...Shikamaru, I have an idea."

"Shadow Possession?" he guessed. "But it's still too dark."

"Not if we ask her to help..." Ino gestured pointedly at the attic stairs with her head.

"Hm, that could work. What's her name again...Sacora!" Shikamaru called down the stairs.

Her face peeked up from below a moment later. "Yes?"

"Come on up, we need you for something."

She climbed up the old stairs and peered at the genin confusedly. "What is it?"

"We need you to use your fire to generate light," Shikamaru explained. "I'll tell you where to stand. Ino, Choji, you guys get empty boxes ready to catch the rats. Make sure they have lids and no holes."

"Okaaay...but why do I need to–"

"Just do as I say."

They scrambled to follow his instructions, and when they were in position, Shikamaru put his hands together in a quick series of signs. "All right...now!"

Sacora lit up a palm as Shikamaru simultaneously kicked at a box, provoking a scurry of tiny feet as several rats darted out. "Move left," he commanded, and Sacora angled her fire accordingly; the shadows at his feet lengthened and stuck fast to the rats', and he manipulated them into Ino's box. "Now behind me, and make it bright!"

"Wah!" Sacora canceled her flames briefly as she almost tipped over a box in shock. "Magic shadows? What _can't_ you ninjas do!?"

"Are you going to help out, or not?" Shikamaru shot back.

The next few minutes were filled with stomping feet and startled squeaks as they rushed around the attic. What started as a miserable task soon became a fast-paced game, with Ino goading Choji on to catch more rats and beat her record, and Sacora and Shikamaru twisting about to get as much surface area for his shadows as possible. When there appeared to be no more rats to catch, all four fell to their bottoms to catch their breaths. Despite the grime, Ino's face was split into a triumphant grin.

"Told you," she panted at Shikamaru.

He rolled his eyes. "All right, fine. It was a brilliant idea," he relented dryly.

"And...?"

"...And you thought of it first."

She smirked and flipped her hair haughtily. "Of course." Remembering Sacora, she turned to the tired firebender slumped next to Shikamaru. "Hey, thanks for the help. You did great!"

Sacora looked up sheepishly and smiled back. "Oh...you're welcome."

Just then, footsteps echoed from below the house. "Is everything all right?" Asuma called up to them. "I heard a lot of noise up there."

Ino crawled up and bent over the opening. "Hey sensei," she called back, "you owe us ramen now!" Slipping feet first onto the stairs, she pointed at the boxes. "You boys can bring those rats down; Sacora and I will wait for you downstairs." She waved for the other girl to follow and they both disappeared from the attic faster than Choji could protest.

Shikamaru looked back at the squeaking boxes and sighed. "What a drag..."

* * *

Lunch was a lively affair, even if Asuma had to pay a bit more than usual to accommodate their guest, and team morale was high when they went to turn in the mission early; but as the day deepened, one thing was becoming glaringly clear.

"Huh," Ino blinked. "It's getting pretty late. Wasn't Team Eight supposed to be back sooner?"

Asuma chewed on his cigarette in thought. "Kurenai's probably run into some delay on the road. Happens all the time."

But Sacora looked up worriedly at the sky, which had already grown dark. "I'm sorry for keeping everyone behind..."

"Hey, stop apologizing!" Ino chided. "It's not your fault. How about this: you come over to my house for the night? Even if Kurenai-sensei's team does come back, at least you'll have somewhere to stay in the meantime."

Sacora nodded readily, aware of the tired looks on Shikamaru and Choji's faces.

Wasting no time, Ino grabbed onto Sacora's wrist. "Let's go pick up your stuff. You got a key?"

"She left it to me this morning," Sacora said.

Shikamaru stretched his legs with a lazy sigh. "Welp. I'm going home, then. See you in the morning, sensei."

As Choji followed suit, Asuma released a puff of smoke into the warm night air. "You kids get home safely. We've got plenty of training to cover tomorrow."

"We will, sensei!" Ino returned over her shoulder. "Come on," she giggled to Sacora. "It's been forever since I had a friend sleep over!"

Sacora blushed. "A friend? Me?"

Ino shrugged. "I mean...what else are you at this point?"

She chattered nonstop all the way to Kurenai's apartment about all the sorts of fun that were usually involved in sleepovers. The concept was strange to Sacora, but interesting; and suddenly, it felt like walking alongside Chuni all over again. _Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Kurenai-sensei doesn't make it back yet,_ she thought as she now listened to Ino talk about flowers.

They finally reached the apartment, and Sacora slid the key into the lock. After the door creaked open, she made to enter, when Ino held out a hand for her to stay put.

She jolted, taken aback by the gesture. "What's wrong?" Sacora asked.

Ino's eyes were no longer cheerful. "There's someone in there."

"Wh-what!?"

Ino signaled for silence and moved her away from the door. The apartment was dark and quiet, bearing no sign of another presence; but then Ino's gaze fixed on one of the window curtains across the room. Without missing a beat, she reached into her shuriken pouch and threw a sharp star at the curtain. The fabric rippled as a dark shape materialized from behind it, and a kunai knife flew out at the two girls a heartbeat later.

Ino pushed Sacora out of the way. "I knew it!" She grabbed a kunai from her own holster and made the hand signs to summon a clone. "Run and get help!"

Her feet obeyed the command while the rest of her struggled to register the situation. Sacora didn't realize how tightly clenched her fists were until she found herself almost barreling down the metal stairs. Heart pumping, she stopped midway, suddenly frozen by shame. _I can't just leave Ino alone!_ But what could she do? If the ninja up there was stronger than them both...

In what seemed a moment of blankness, she noticed some villagers ambling about in the street below – and several of them were wearing flak jackets.

She ran back up the stairs, hoping she wasn't too late. Her heart leapt to her mouth when Ino was nowhere to be seen, but the blonde haired girl reappeared a moment later when she was thrown from the apartment and roughly hit the railing.

Her assailant stepped out from the door and into the wan light. He stalked towards Ino, his face concealed by a cloth mask and his hand gripping a long dagger. Sacora dispelled her anxieties with a deep breath and cupped her hands around her mouth.

"Hey! You!"

The masked shinobi whipped his head around and raced down the corridor towards her. She held her fists ready, gathering chi to direct into a large flow, before shouting over the banister:

" _Fire_!"

A burst of flame erupting in a large plume over the railing followed her cry. Shocked gasps and yells echoed from below, and the villagers' silhouettes grew in numbers as people flocked to the apartment complex. Sacora held it for several more seconds before releasing the fire to see where the shinobi had gone, and turned to find him paused no less than three feet away from her.

She tensed, fists raised, not knowing whether to fight or flee. The shinobi's hardened eyes stared at her for what felt like an eternity, the light reflecting off his forehead protector in a menacing gleam; but rather than continue his charge, he dashed off the railing and seemingly vanished into the night.

A man in a flak jacket leapt over the banister shortly after, snapping her back into reality. "S-sensei!" she stuttered, forgetting Asuma's name in that split second. She ran up to him and Ino, where she shakily knelt beside the injured girl.

"Are you girls okay?" Asuma practically barked. "What happened?"

"Th-there was someone," Sacora stuttered, "and he attacked us..."

Ino winced as she attempted to sit up. "It was a ninja," she ground out. "He was waiting in Kurenai-sensei's apartment."

Two more flak jacketed men jumped up into the corridor behind them. "Where's the fire?" one of them asked urgently.

Asuma looked about the apartments, but everything was otherwise calm. His eyes fell on Sacora, whereupon he gave a knowing nod. "There's no fire, but there's been a break-in. Come on," he told the girls, and wrapped his arm about Ino's shoulder to help her up. "See if you can track down a runaway ninja," he said to the men, "and get someone to investigate number three-six-one."

Sacora watched the men jump away and looked up at Asuma. "Will Kurenai-sensei..."

He shook his head. "Don't worry about that now. All that matters is you both are safe."

Considering what could have happened to Ino, Sacora was inclined to agree. Still, she watched her back as they went down the stairs, and couldn't shake off the haunting feeling that she had come within a hair's breadth of deadly disaster.

* * *

It felt as though the rest of the night would be filled giving statements at the police station. Sacora and Asuma were seated in the lobby after the endless questions, waiting for the paperwork to be filled out, when the doors burst open to admit a frantic kunoichi.

"Kurenai-sensei!" Sacora cried, and leapt up from her chair. She intercepted Kurenai's path with a sudden hug, to which the crimson-eyed jonin responded with reassuring pats.

"I came as soon as I heard," Kurenai said to Asuma. "We got lost on the way to our escort destination and it took us forever to find the road again...was anyone hurt?"

Asuma shook his head. "Not seriously, anyway. Minor cuts and bruises on Ino; they let her home with her parents just ten minutes go." He rose from his seat and gestured questioningly to a corner of the room. "Can we, um, talk for a sec?"

Kurenai nodded and urged Sacora to return to her seat. Once the firebender was out of the way, she paced towards Asuma and crossed her arms. "I'm listening."

"The ninja that attacked them was an Ame-nin, according to Ino," he divulged in a low voice. "The barrier team isn't sure of how he passed undetected. They traced him out of the village, but his trail ran cold. The police couldn't establish a mode of entry at your place and suspect he used a window since the door had been locked, but apparently, he didn't touch anything else."

Kurenai's brows furrowed deeper with every word. "I'll check on that to be sure. But it seems more like he was lying in wait..."

"The question is, for who?"

Kurenai glanced briefly at Sacora from the corner of her eye. "A Rain ninja sounds like an assassination attempt. It's possible I got on someone's bad side during one of my missions...but a Rain ninja also sounds like a cover to divert motive."

Asuma crossed his arms. "So it could have been her."

"Staying on the down-low, hiring from a village known for a certain skill, waiting until it seemed she would be unsupervised–" Kurenai narrowed her eyes. "Even if they didn't succeed, that cult could still bet on us investigating the wrong lead. And now that I think about it, my team's delay must have something to do with it as well."

Asuma's jaw clenched at the thought. "I'll inform the Hokage and look into your client's background," he proposed. "In the meantime, you shouldn't take any missions leading out of the village for a while; for both your team and Sacora's sake."

She nodded, accepting the stipulations with a weary sigh. "I hope to god that I'm wrong," she murmured as she ran a hand over her face, and looked over her shoulder at Sacora again. "She was only lucky today because Ino is a sensor type."

"Conversely, Ino made it out okay thanks to her quick thinking," Asuma interjected, and related to Kurenai how he had been alerted to the conflict. "So she's not completely helpless. Tell her when you can that Ino and I...we owe her one."

"Really, now?" For the first time since she heard the news, Kurenai smiled. "Thanks, I will."

* * *

Sacora read and reread the same line of hiragana for what felt like fifteen times, before giving up with a sigh and flipping the book closed against her lap. Though the training ground was particularly serene this morning, she didn't have it in her to focus.

Then something wet and cold pushed against her hand, startling her. Finding it none other than Akamaru's nose, she instantly relaxed and scratched him behind the ears.

"You didn't need that book anyway," Kiba interjected as he plopped to the ground beside them.

Sacora shrugged. "I guess."

Akamaru continued to happily receive her scratches, until, at a signal from Kiba, he suddenly jumped and started chasing his own tail.

She fought the urge to giggle, but failed at doing so when it came out as a full laugh. "Akamaru! What are you doing?"

The little dog let out a yip and ran around for three more circles, then flopped to the ground with as much grace as a fish and exposed his furry belly. When he wasn't immediately rewarded with belly rubs, he let out a confused whine, to which she responded with more laughs and finally, a rub.

Kurenai watched them with a faint smile on her lips. Tensions still ran after the incident, and Kurenai couldn't blame her. If the poor girl had ever been overwhelmed before, she probably felt more so now. _We could both use a breather to get it off our minds..._ "You've all done a good job thus far," she said suddenly. "There's a Market Day going on right now; how about we end early and go for some dango? My treat."

"Oh, that would be nice," Hinata gushed. "Th-thank you, sensei!"

"About time!" Kiba exclaimed. "You never spoil us like Asuma-sensei does with his team."

"And you see how well that works for him," Shino put in.

Kurenai chuckled. "Then consider yourselves lucky. What about you, Sacora?" she asked, turning to the firebender. "Have you had dango yet?"

Sacora shook her head. "I've never tried it."

" _Dude._ You will love it. Seriously," Kiba promised.

Market Day in the village encompassed a majority of the marketplace and some of the square, filled with vendors and shop owners alike clamoring for business with special wares or discount prices. Sacora didn't think she ever needed to squeeze between people to make her way around the village before, and she had already thought Konoha to be more populous than the Caldera City.

The smells in particular were downright appetizing. Savory and sweet, they wafted along the streets from the sizzling grills or frying pans of the food vendors. Sacora's stomach was already growling when Kurenai stopped at a dango stand, and she gratefully accepted the skewer of pink, white, and green-colored balls that was handed her.

Kiba had already downed one ball and shared half of the second with Akamaru by the time she started nibbling on hers. The balls were soft and chewy, tasting thickly of rice with a hint of sweetness from the sprinkled sugar and flavoring in each of the different colors.

"D-do you like it?" Hinata asked expectantly.

Sacora nodded. "The pink is my favorite."

"It's sakura-flavored," Shino informed her. "As in, the pink flower."

"Hey, let's check out that stand!" Kiba interrupted them, but had already moved on ahead without waiting for any of them to say yes.

"Don't just run off on your own like that!" Shino chided as he, Hinata, and Sacora rushed to catch up with him.

He was thankfully hard to miss with the bright white Akamaru perched atop his head. Still, Sacora could already imagine the argument between him and Shino once they caught up.

"Sacora!" a different voice suddenly called out.

She turned in the direction of her name and stopped running when she saw the friendly face of Mr. Teiji. "Oh, Mr. Teiji! Hello."

He was standing at a stall that specialized in selling tea, though Sacora could not see anyone working behind it at the moment. "I see you're enjoying Market Day with your friends," he remarked with a chuckle. "Here, have some tea with your dango–" He gestured at the cups laid out on the stand. "They just poured samples of a special tea from the mountains, so it's still hot."

She glanced around and found Team Eight back together, ogling wares two stalls down. "Oh...I'd love to, but..."

"Just grab a cup," he coaxed with a smile. "It's free, after all."

"Well...okay." She came up to the stand and picked up a cup with her free hand. The first sip carried hints of flowers and fruit as it slid smoothly down her throat, radiating pleasant warmth that spread to her limbs. "Oh, it's very good."

"Indeed! I'm thinking of buying several tins myself."

Seeing as she still had plenty of it left, she took another sip, closing her eyes to savor the brew's herbal fragrance; and it certainly was a fine fragrance, so fine her fingers loosened numbly around the cup, and her consciousness faded away into darkness.

* * *

 **Notes**

For students who used brushes and ink, sandstone and pumice could have erased small mistakes, which of course is not as convenient as a pencil + eraser. Also, I looked it up and a Chinese person would indeed have some trouble reading kanji; while they would be able to understand the gist of the character, they might not grasp the detail or how the words fit together in the sentence.

The "March to Civlization" is an oath written and commissioned by Fire Lord Sozin at the beginning of the war that is taught to children in schools, per the Avatar Wiki.


	8. Chapter 8

"She's gone!"

"What!?" Asuma exclaimed.

"Sacora is _gone_ ," Kurenai repeated. "She was with us at the stalls, but now we can't find her anywhere!"

"Did you check all of the market?"

"What else have we been doing for the past hour?"

Kakashi jumped in beside them and shook his head when he straightened. "It's no use. Pakkun found her scent mixed with someone else's leading away from the market; whoever has her would have left the village by now."

" _Shit,_ " Asuma cursed. "We'll have to go now, or we'll lose them."

Kakashi nodded. "You both head out first; I'll sound the alarm and bring help. Pakkun will be waiting for you at the gates."

A weight sank in Kurenai's stomach as her thoughts returned the break-in. _But a kidnapping in broad daylight, smack in the middle of the village.._.such a thing had not happened in a long while, not since they first discovered the cult trading people with Orochimaru years back. Evidently, they were doing more than just trading, and now Kurenai feared the worst. _I am such a fool! I should have been more careful!_

A warm hand enclosed her shoulder, and she found herself looking into Asuma's stern yet reassuring eyes. "Don't beat yourself up over it. We'll get her back."

She squeezed his hand and gave him a wan smile. "I know; we have to."

* * *

Kiba watched the dogs assemble at the entrance of the clan compound with a growing sense of impatience. "I can hold my own in a fight, and Akamaru's just as good as any ninken here! Why do we have to stay behind!?"

"Go sit your ass down in your room, boy!" Tsume barked back. "If they wanted a genin, they would've said so!"

"So what if I'm a genin!? I can do many of the clan techniques! You've seen me! I–"

"No means _no_!" Tsume snarled. "This isn't a game, Kiba. All your griping's good for is causing delays; if you wanna help so badly, how about doing some growing up first?"

Kiba's face reddened with indignation. "I-I'm not–"

Hinata grabbed his arm back. "Please," she entreated him, "s-stop fighting..."

Hana gave their mother a cautious glance and sighed. "Anyway, we'll be back soon. I'll let you know how it goes, okay?"

The impetuous Inuzuka yanked his arm away from his teammate and turned his back on everyone. Taking that as a yes, Hana and two other clan members followed Tsume's lead out of the compound, their loyal ninken loping in stride beside them. Shino watched them disappear into Konoha before finally turning with a wary eye to Kiba.

"Are you going to be all right?"

"Does it look like it to you?" Kiba shot back.

Hinata twiddled her fingers together uneasily. "D-don't be mad, Kiba...we couldn't have known..."

"It wasn't even a minute!" He balled his hands into tight fists. "A ninja was right under our nose, and we didn't even notice!"

"As much as you want it to change, what's done has been done," Shino reminded him. "And since we weren't assigned to go, we can only wait to see what will happen next. Besides, our clans have capable people who should be able to fetch her back."

Hinata nodded in agreement. "So please, don't be upset..."

"But what if they don't?" he challenged, whirling about to face them. "Are we just gonna sit here and do nothing?"

Shino raised an eyebrow. "Do you doubt their abilities?" he questioned.

"Of course not! I'm just saying..." Kiba shook his head. "Agh, forget it! I'm taking Akamaru for a walk. You guys just go home or whatever."

Shino frowned. "Kiba, wait–"

But he picked up the little dog and stormed off into the village without so much as a glance back at either of them. Shino crossed his arms in exasperation while Hinata could only sigh in defeat. Their eyes met in an exchange of troubled glances, and with an uneasy accord, they quietly left the compound.

* * *

Tight ribs – stiff legs – garbled voices.

Through the numbing fog in her head, these sensations ran their course in ebbing tides until it no longer became bearable to lie back and let them be. She stirred awake to a hard and wooden reality that contorted into rolling, loopy shapes, and an incessant ringing in her ears that momentarily drowned out the voices.

Just as suddenly, the ringing cleared, and everything grew calm.

"I got you through the barrier at risk of discovery."

Sacora blinked as she registered the words. She squirmed about in her wooden prison, until she realized it wasn't a prison at all.

"I identified her for you and even tracked her schedule; but apparently, that wasn't enough."

She rolled onto her back and winced at the sunlight piercing through her eyes. Tears streaming, she flipped back to her side to let the flashing spots pass.

"I ended up doing _everything._ And now you have the audacity to demand payment?"

"What do you think the word 'hire' means?" another voice sneered. "You wouldn't even listen to me about waiting until the chunin exams. You owe me."

 _What's going_ _on?_ Sacora tried hefting herself up, but her binds held taut against any bending movement. With a flopping lurch, she lifted her shoulder sideways onto the edge of the cart and blinked about at the fuzzy scenery around her, in particular at the vague outlines of two figures standing ahead.

"The only thing I owe you..." A wet, metallic slice cut through the air as her vision filled with a spray of red. "...is a lesson on insolence."

She didn't know how long she stayed frozen for; all she could see was the slick blood raining to the ground and the slumping body that followed. The details waxed and waned in clarity, but as the remaining figure turned about, her vision finally sharpened to a cruel accuracy that accentuated every corner of his displeased features.

With a gasp, she fell back into the cart in an ungainly thump. Her heart raced as she struggled to the other side, but she already knew the effort was futile. In half the time it took her to roll away, the stranger had jumped onto the edge and was peering down at her with a disappointed scowl.

"Awake already?" he muttered, and hopped down beside her. With a deft hand, he grabbed her shoulder and flipped her onto her back; with the other, he held two thin needles clenched between his fingers.

"N-no!" Sacora rasped. She writhed against all hope, but his grip was as firm as the ropes around her. Before she knew it, two stinging pinpricks of pain slid into her neck, and her frantic movements slowed to a sluggish crawl.

"That should keep you out for a while," his booming voice drawled. Her eyelids rose and fell as they failed to battle the thickening in her mind, morphing the world into blotches of light and color. The last thing she saw before phasing out was the silhouette of a man's face, framed amidst a blizzard of white.

* * *

Kurenai landed on the branch beside Pakkun and crouched in preparation for another leap as she watched him sniff the air.

"Hn..." he mused. "The scent has shifted."

"Not too far, I hope?" Kurenai ventured to ask.

The little pug's brow knitted into a frown. "No, but something's not right. It's too stationary. Kakashi's coming up with some tracking reinforcements; best wait 'til they arrive before we move on."

Kurenai bit down on her lower lip as she thought of the time slipping through their fingers. She knew better than to argue against this particular ninken of Kakashi's, though; his talking abilities aside, his skills included detecting a subject's threat level and distance through scent. If he had doubts as to a certain scent, then she was wise to heed it.

Tsume and her clan members arrived shortly after, followed by several Hyuga and Aburame. Kakashi stood amongst them, nonchalant as ever. Once Pakkun gave them a quick rundown of the situation, they moved as a whole through the trees in the direction of the scent. _Is it a trap he senses?_ Kurenai wondered as she glimpsed Pakkun leaping through the foliage. _Or are we preparing for a hostile encounter?_

They stopped at the edge of a clearing that the road below cut through in a winding line. It would have appeared to be nothing special if it weren't for the flayed corpse bleeding out on the ground below. The Inuzuka dogs whined in agitation and Pakkun's nose wrinkled as they leapt down to investigate. The body, male, seemed fresh, for only a handful of flies had taken to landing on it; but any chance of identification was moot, as the skin from the neck up was torn and badly mangled.

"Her scent," Pakkun grumbled after several sniffs. "It ends here."

"What do you mean by that?" Asuma asked.

Tsume snarled in distaste at the bloodied skin. "It's all over this body. Going by smell alone, this should be your target."

Kurenai stiffened. "Is it possible...?"

One of the Hyuga knelt beside the corpse and activated her Byakugan. "There's no masking jutsu placed on the body," she clarified. "Only a scent technique was used."

 _So not her._ A relief, albeit a temporary one. _If they're going through all this effort to keep us from finding her..._

A gust of wind blew into the clearing just then, brushing through the trees in a rustling sigh. Suddenly, the dogs whipped their heads about and sniffed the air in a frenzy. Their shinobi partners too appeared excited by whatever change had overtaken them, feral eyes sweeping the treetops with suspicion.

"The scent," Hana exclaimed. "It's everywhere!"

Kurenai closed her eyes in exasperation. _I knew it._

"How badly is it scattered?" Kakashi inquired.

"Like roaches in daylight. Keep up that Byakugan," Tsume advised the Hyuga, a bracing hand placed atop Kuromaru's head. "We're gonna need it."

Asuma stepped in beside Kurenai with a disquieted look. "It's just like before, isn't it?" he remarked softly. "Scents would get muddled."

 _And the trail would run endlessly,_ Kurenai finished in her mind, unable to bring herself to say the words aloud. _To the point that it became wasteful to continue the search..._ She shook her head. "One of the Hyuga will come with us," she announced to the group. "The rest of you, split into teams. We can't chase all the leads but we'll try to cast the widest net possible."

Pakkun turned in response to Kakashi. "I've got several branches of the scent that seem particularly strong. I'd recommend priority over them; give me a minute to make sure we're on the same page with the Inuzukas, and then we can get out of here."

While that was being accomplished along with the exchange of earpiece radios, the Aburames' arms clouded over in large, speckled clusters as they summoned their insects to the surface. The buzzing of tiny wings momentarily filled the air, casting thin shadows over the forest floor that dissipated in all directions as quickly as the shinobi below.

* * *

Kiba flattened himself further against the tree as the wind rolled past. He waited until the sounds of people dwindled in the distance before daring to peek around the trunk again, eyes carefully scanning the surrounding forest to ensure that he was truly alone.

"Sounds like it'll only get more difficult from here," remarked a voice behind him.

Kiba jolted. "What the–!?" He spun around and found his teammates standing on the branch behind him, almost losing his footing in the process. "Sh-shino? Hinata? What're you guys doing here!?"

"You may be a fool," Shino pointed out, "but you aren't going to be one alone."

Hinata nodded. "I put together some first aid and emergency rations," she added meekly, bringing to attention the small pack she carried on her back. "Just in case..."

At this, Kiba's shocked face mellowed into a wide grin. "Sweet! I was actually getting hungry."

"...You truly are a fool," Shino sighed, and held out a finger to retrieve a beetle that flew out from a fold in the Inuzuka's coat. "So, how do you propose we go about this? You do realize we're trying to tail tracking experts who could easily discover us..."

"Who said anything about tailing?" Kiba accepted some jerky from Hinata, which he bit into with relish. "I've been keeping downwind of them, but I'm gonna follow a scent trail of my own. Isn't that right, buddy?" he asked the little dog beside him. Akamaru yipped in agreement and was rewarded with a freshly broken piece of jerky.

"How different would it be from what they're following?" Shino queried yet again.

Kiba smirked. "Everyone's so worked up over Sacora's scent, even the kidnapper forgot. It's pretty simple, really." He took another bite and disclosed smugly as he chewed, "It's the smell of dango. Specifically, sakura dango."

"Th-that's right!" Hinata realized. "She was still eating it when we last saw her..."

"But it's pretty weak, so we gotta move fast," Kiba added.

Shino crossed his arms and nodded. "I can't disperse any kikaichu for now if we don't want to be discovered. Hinata ought to conserve her Byakugan, too; at least until the scent is stronger."

Kiba handed the rest of the jerky to Akamaru and dusted off his hands with a smirk. "Just leave it all to me."

* * *

"Look, Fan! Isn't this the prettiest swallowgale you've ever seen?"

"Oh, she's lovely...your father is so generous with you, Chuni."

"I've done very well this year! Of _course_ he had to reward me." Lips curve into a mischievous smile. "But, Fan...I heard that you've displeased your father. You've done something...bad."

"Wh-what?"

A door slams open with a metallic clang, revealing the innards of a naval ship. Father stands at the entrance, unhappy. "I know what you told Hayate," he scowled. "You must not be proud of this family if you would spill such secrets willingly...I'm sending you away for good."

A shadow glides out from behind him, slender in the red light, cascading black hair and crimson eyes. "Come with me, Sacora. I'll take you to the village. You'll never see them again." Her outstretched hand is strangely inviting, but before Sacora can think about accepting it, she notices something clenched in between the fingers –

 _Needles._

* * *

 _Ow!_ Sacora winced and blinked back tears as blunt pain lanced through her temple. When it subsided, she squinted at her semi-dark surroundings through watery vision and tried to raise her head from the rock that had so suddenly become a pillow. But the ropes reminded her of her predicament; eyes darting, unfamiliar scenery greeted her at every turn in the form of a dark forest. "Mmmph–" And now she couldn't move her mouth, either.

The crunch of undergrowth silenced her panic. She froze, every swish and rustle heightened by her fraught senses. As the sounds came close, she spied a man's outline emerging from the trees. Initially vague, his shadowed profile quickly brought back unwelcome images of blood and needles. She shut her eyes tight when he looked her way.

"They're late," he groused. He strode over to her – so dangerously close she could hardly breathe – and propped her up against a tree with a tug of the ropes. She listened to him pace about some more, head pounding in suspense, before he suddenly fell quiet somewhere ahead of her.

Her eyes opened a crack. He was standing with his back to her. Thoughts of what he was waiting for raced through her mind. _Am I going to be sold? Are they going to kill me?_ Just like that other man had been, cold-blooded and unfeelingly; her mouth ran dry. _I...I don't want to die like that!_

Sacora swallowed and tried to flex her wrists. They wouldn't budge; the ropes were too tight. She let out a silent exhalation and curled her fingers into a loose fist. Ever so slowly, tiny flickers of flame came dancing to life just above her fingernails. She raised and lowered them at intervals to try to reach the ropes while watching her captor shift about. Higher and higher she sent them, knuckles grazing against the bark, until she could feel the heat creeping against the small of her back. Eventually, the rope felt a little looser on her wrists.

Yet perhaps she should have stopped, for when she was able to smell the singed hemp, it was already too late. The man sniffed; "Something's burning...?"

She snuffed her flames right as he turned and feigned unconsciousness once more. All was quiet as he made his way towards her; suddenly, she was pushed face-first onto a patch of dried leaves. A muffled cry escaped the gag, much to her regret, though the ruse was short lived anyway when her captor let out displeased _tsk_ upon discovering the burnt rope.

"Awake again?" he grumbled. "That was enough to knock out a grown man."

She wriggled against the weight of his foot on her back, puffing several hot breaths into the gag that threatened to sear her cheeks. When he flipped her over, the scorched cloth fell away and the fire redirected to his face, blown as vehemently as her constricted chest would allow. He gave a startled cry followed by an annoyed kick that sent her rolling into a tree.

"Why, you little–" He reached into a pouch behind his back and slid out four long, menacing needles. "I didn't want to get rough with you, but you give me no choice!"

Sacora spit leafy debris from her tongue and attempted to roll away as he pounced on her. With a hand pushing on her head and a knee across her back, he had her pinned; no matter how badly she wanted to flail or scream, her limbs were locked tight and her mouth choked with loamy dirt. _I don't want to die,_ she thought as tears began forming, the images of Father and Chuni flashing behind closed eyes. _I just want to get out of here._

 _Someone, anyone, help me...please!_

* * *

"Child."

It was primal, rumbling deep from within the bowels of ancient time itself. The guttural timbre stirred her to the very core, strong tremors of thunder resonating throughout her soul. The call was as much a command as it was a greeting, summoning her to open up her sight to something far greater than what she was capable of understanding. When she gathered the courage to do so, it was a sight both unsettling and wonderful.

Winding and serpentine was its physique, the great horns crowning a broad head atop a regal nest of hair-like plumes, ridged with jagged spikes that ran along the twisting coils of its seemingly never-ending body. Brilliant scales gleamed with an unearthly inner light, glowing like crackling embers with every heave of the gargantuan belly. Its speech was not formed from its mouth, yet she heard it booming all the same, loud and clear.

"Long ago, when your people did not yet have a word for 'dragon', they called me _Jin She._ "

"Gold Snake," Sacora breathed, recalling stories of the legendary breed of dragons that the First People witnessed flying down from the volcanic mountains of the Capital City; the first known teachers of the art that would become known as firebending. _But how_ _am I meeting one now_ _? General Iroh killed the last dragon years ago..._

"I could ask the same of you," the gravelly voice returned. Its bearded muzzle bent close to her, the orb-like eyes studying her with interest. "Many humans have I met in this strange place...only you survived."

"S-survived?" she stuttered.

"Those who have seen me did not live beyond their first screams," the creature answered cryptically. "Such is the consequence of a forced containment of the spirits..."

"What do you mean?" she asked, bewildered. "You're a spirit?"

A cloud of steam emitted from its nostrils as it dipped its head in an affirming bow. "And you, little one, are my vessel."

"I'm... _what_?"

Flashes of gold twinkled at the corners of her vision as the coils shifted into an endless loop, the voice echoing from all corners as the bearded head traveled in a meandering circuit around her. "I have been with you since you first arrived here," it began. "I have felt your woes and dreamed your dreams. You, also, have been intertwined with my essence; you simply hadn't realized."

Sacora blinked. "Ever since I...came here?" She remembered dark-robed circle and the rising pillar of fire. "So...those chanting people, they..."

"Mm." Its rumbling sigh resounded through her ears in deep ripples. "An unfortunate practice of these jealous humans. Many lives it has endangered, and with scant success. For all the persistence, we have only seen one other living vessel."

"We...I have?"

She was given a pointed sidelong glance in response. "The boy with the whiskers."

Sacora wondered who that could be, until it clicked in her memory a moment later. _Naruto?_ The foolish genin who bragged about becoming Hokage? As his cocksure face came to mind, the same heated roiling as before returned to her stomach like the clashing of two rival flames. Clutching it in surprise, she looked up to find the dragon's belly flickering in tandem with hers.

"But...why? Why would they do this?"

"Power? Pride? The desires of the humans here are as much a mystery to me as they are to you, little one." A drifting whisker brushed gently past her, and she found the sagely eyes looming just above her head. "Once, they were friends of the spirits. The scroll you possessed...it was a testament to that friendship."

She gasped. "You know about the scroll?"

"I remember it well." Its eyes took on a distant cast as it lowered its plumed head to her level. "A warrior of this land once wandered across the spirit world and befriended an Avatar on the other side. To symbolize their bond, they created a pair of scrolls imbued with each of their individual power that allowed them safe passage across the spirit world and the ability to visit one another on the eve of every full moon." A scaly lid lowered on the eye nearest her and lingered wistfully. "The scroll you were given, little one, was the Avatar's scroll."

 _I...I can't believe it!_ The odds that such a relic came from a mere street hawker; that she hadn't been the first to come to this strange place, that it was an _Avatar_ –

"But you have not called upon me to recollect the past." A cloud of steam bathed her momentarily as the creature raised its snaking neck above her again.

She craned back her head to follow its ascent, brows scrunched in confusion.

"We are here because I have heard your cry. I can help you as I did on the night you arrived; if you will let me."

Sacora pursed her lips in trepidation, unsure of how much more of the dragon's knowledge she wanted to know. When she managed to find her voice again, she asked, hesitantly, "What did you do...on that night?"

With an understanding nod, the muzzle drew close again, and a slender whisker delicately tapped her forehead.

* * *

Crackling static broke through the silence. "Hana reporting. Potential hostilities up ahead."

"Muta reporting – we are also sensing hostile groups."

"Tokuma reporting...combat inevitable. Hostiles have thrown the first strike."

"Kurenai reporting; no hostilities on our side. Keep updating if possible." She finished the transmission with a grimace. "Iroha, Pakkun – I don't suppose you sense any trouble ahead?"

They stopped to let the tracker nin examine their surroundings, in particular for Iroha Hyuga to focus his Byakugan.

"There's a strange concentration of chakra nine kilometers to the east," said Iroha at length. "I can't tell if it's a hostile. It's unlike any shinobi's I've seen..."

Kurenai perked up. "That must be her," she said, exchanging glances with Asuma and Kakashi.

"A twelve year old girl has this much chakra?" Iroha asked incredulously.

Kakashi frowned. "That doesn't sound right. She has unusual structure, but no quantifiable reserves."

Iroha chewed his lower lip in thought. "I don't know. I can't see people in that area. Someone's erected a barrier, but that chakra's bleeding through it, and growing. Fast."

"It's in the direction of the scent we're pursuing," Pakkun added. "If it's her, we'll soon find out."

Armed with the information, they were ready to move out. But Iroha suddenly stiffened. "Hold on a moment...is that...?" He narrowed his eyes. "Lady Hinata!" he exclaimed. "Around eight kilometers northeast – I see Lady Hinata and her teammates! But what are they doing out here?"

Kurenai's eyes widened. With a clench of her fists, she fought the urge to curse. _Of all the_ – "Oh, I think I know just why they're out here," she practically hissed through gritted teeth. "Where are they headed?"

"If I'm not mistaken, they'll reach that chakra concentration before we do," Iroha informed. "They're just about a kilometer's distance from it."

Kurenai pursed her lips as she weighed her options. "Is there no way to intercept them?"

Iroha went quiet as his opaque eyes scanned through the foliage once more. "We can only try to get there quicker. They are moving at too fast a pace for us to stop them, even if we angle our path differently."

"Just great," she muttered, running a hand through her hair.

"It's gonna be all right," Asuma assured her as they headed out again. "They're smart kids."

"Let's hope some of that training's rubbed off," she sighed, though it would have been all the more helpful if her lessons of caution and thought had been heeded instead. As far as she knew, she did _not_ appreciate the stakes suddenly getting higher than they should be.

* * *

"K-Kiba, are we lost?"

"Like hell we are! Don't be such a baby, Hinata."

"She has a point," Shino interjected. "We've been going for hours and her Byakugan hasn't found anything...is your scent trail still even viable?"

He leapt onto another branch and gave his teammates willful glances. "Seriously, guys; when have I or Akamaru ever let you down?"

"That one babysitting mission..."

"Doesn't count!"

"Do you think we're too far from the village?" Hinata asked again, eyeing the purple sky with worry. "I-if we can't find her before dark..."

"It's only logical." As they stopped to take a break, Shino gave Kiba a pointed look. "We've tried our best, but we honestly have no business being here. If it isn't someone on the mission that finds us, it's someone sent for us or an enemy. We'll have to turn back."

The conflict was plain on Kiba's face as that sank in, combined with weariness. "Well, if we find her, we're gonna have to fight anyway. And I swear, guys, we're so close–"

"Hinata's Byakugan hasn't picked up anything despite being 'so close'," Shino pointed out. "I'm going to use my beetles now, but I can't guarantee our safety from discovery if they encounter those of my clan. Staying hidden shouldn't be a priority at this point, anyway."

"Well...fine!" Kiba snapped. "What are you waiting for?"

Hinata opened her mouth to say something comforting to her troubled teammate, but thought better of it when she saw the turmoil in his eyes. She bowed her head in submission as they waited for Shino's kikaichu to scuttle out from the depths of his jacket, hoping neither of them would see the fatigue that plagued her limbs.

A burst of orange light flashing through the trees forced her head back up. She turned to Shino and Kiba, wondering if they'd seen it too.

Judging by their stern faces, they had. The light dimmed and held steady in wavering flickers, blinking ominously through the leaves. A breeze blowing from its direction carried an acrid hint of smoke. Akamaru pawed the branch in irritation and let out a whine.

"Something's burning," Kiba remarked, rubbing his nose. "And it's not gunpowder."

"It...it could be her?" Hinata suggested hopefully.

Shino pushed up his glasses. "Only one way to find out."

* * *

It was a burst of freedom, a delicious breath of air, and a cool wind seeping between the flames circling her as she spun to her feet; a rush of reality so vividly clear, yet astoundingly surreal in its own right. Beyond the waves of heat, the remnants of her bonds lay scattered about the forest floor alongside her fallen captor, who was groaning with exertion as he struggled to move.

 _I feel so...full of energy,_ Sacora thought. From her fingers to her toes, to the very flush in her cheeks, she felt it everywhere. Whatever soreness she sustained had disappeared, and whatever fear was replaced with a brimming confidence. Never had she felt so invigorated before, so ready for anything.

 _This is only the beginning,_ a deep voice echoed within her. _There is much we are capable of together._

Startled, she looked about for the source of the voice. "Jin She?" she blurted out. "You're here? I can hear you..."

 _And so you will, from here on out. Now show him._

A blur of movement phased past the corner of her eye; her captor had disappeared.

 _Show him what we can do._

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as a prickling sensation crept down her spine. She whirled around and stared intently at the underbrush, somehow knowing the man was there despite not being able to see him. Time seemed to slow as she traced the swaying of the foliage, deceptively similar to the motions of wind. Fingers tensing, she curled back an arm and pushed with the largest flow of chi she had ever felt coursing through her veins.

The explosion of heat and light that issued forth nearly blinded her in its sudden ferocity. She gaped, dumbstruck, at the roaring inferno she had somehow unleashed upon the forest, till a barrage of hot needles flying out from the fire punctured her across the abdomen.

Before the pain could register, she whipped her gaze skyward. _He's ab_ _ove._ Without missing a beat, she punched up and felt her heart leap when a rain of needles came down upon her. Shielding her face, she rolled to the side to avoid them, catching a few in the thigh.

An ungainly thud to her right stole her attention from the wounds. Her opponent looked the worse for wear, but quickly recovered himself with a roll and the blurring of his fingers into the formation of hand signs.

 _I can't let him finish it!_ She pushed herself up and, gathering the surplus chi to her core, swept a large swath of fire after him.

She watched it engulf his figure and waited with bated breath for when it would overtake him. Instead, a boiling hiss emitted from his position. Next followed the gurgle of flowing water, and to her ultimate confusion, an angry torrent that came gushing around her, threatening to wash her away should it flow to completion. On a turn of an ankle, she pushed against the torrent whirling behind her, refusing to be extinguished so easily. At first, the effort felt gargantuan, almost insurmountable; but gradually her flames gained traction, burning brighter and brighter until the very forest around them almost seemed to glow white. The world for that moment was nothing but a giant hiss of light and smoke.

She followed the water in a swirling loop until sputtered out at the source; or at least, where its source was supposed to be. Thick steam wafted from the shinobi's previous spot, but her new instincts told her he wasn't gone. With a cautious turn, she spied him lying languidly on a branch behind her, clutching at a side wound.

"Impressive," he panted, "but too late."

A metallic rattle emanated from the trees above her. Two twirling chains shot out from the leaves faster than the eye could blink and wrapped themselves tightly about her wrists. With a panicked gasp, she looked up and found two other shinobi perched in the trees, each with a tight hold on a chain and a hand engaged in a sign that sent glowing energy through the metal.

"Hurry before she starts again," her captor grunted. "As far as I know, she's absorbed the Elemental Beast's power."

"N-no!" Sacora yelled, yanking at the chains. "I'm not going anywhere with you–"

 _Clang!_ A whizzing shape struck the midpoint of the chain, interrupting the flow of energy. It looked like a kunai knife with something papery at the end, but she had barely seen it when it fizzled and exploded in a shower of sparks, breaking the chain and freeing a wrist.

Then the air suddenly filled with a buzzing cloud that obscured the shinobi in the trees. As their curses filled the air, Sacora felt the remaining chain wobble and took the advantage to give it a heavy yank. The links crashed down in a clanking heap, followed by the shinobi who employed them. His body brutally hit the forest floor, but when it made contact, it changed to a mossy log that broke to splintered bits.

 _They are regrouping to attack,_ Jin She warned.

She braced herself accordingly, sensing that it would come on either side of her by two of the captors, and spotted the flicker of incoming bodies. Yet before she could strike, another pair of bodies whirled onto the field.

Spinning like wild cyclones, they gyrated about her in a frenzy and threw back her assailants at dizzying speed. She watched them separate warily at first, until one of them landed beside her and made her realize their scruffy gray coat and cocky fanged grin was not unfamiliar at all.

"Kiba!? How did you get here?"

"That's Akamaru," he called out from her other side. "You're welcome, by the way."

She kept her shock in check when one of the shinobi came back at them with flying shuriken. She move to duck, but a barrage of shuriken coming in the opposite direction deflected their paths. Shino jumped down from where he was perched, and with him seemed to grow a hazy cloud with the most unnerving buzz that surrounded them.

"We need to move quickly," he panted. "I've immobilized one of them in the trees and my beetles will provide temporary cover, but the heat's too much for them."

They ran as far as they believed to be from the source of the conflict and found Hinata crouched on a branch ten feet or so above ground, watching for followers with her Byakugan. "You all followed me out here?" Sacora asked incredulously when they had a chance to take a breath.

"It wasn't easy, lemme tell you," Kiba panted. Beside him, Akamaru melted away from human to regular dog again.

"But...why?"

"Not the time," Shino interjected, and waved for Hinata to come down from the tree. "We've got a forest fire to worry about as well as being followed. I don't suppose that's your doing?"

Hinata dismissed her Byakugan to join them, but something she'd seen at the last second made her freeze. "Behind...!"

Sacora turned to meet whatever it was, not expecting the threat to wrap about her ankle. The new chain pulled her to the ground before she knew it and sent her skidding through the forest at high speed. Team Eight disappeared from view almost instantly, and with them, the hope of returning to safety. Flailing frantically, she summoned the strength to flip herself onto her stomach and dug her fingers desperately into the dirt. Little by little, resistance grew until the chain was taut with force, barely vibrating. Little more and her leg might be pulled clean off, she feared.

"Goddammit!" Kiba's voice cursed in the distance.

"She went that way," Hinata's followed, urgent and anxious.

 _If I can still hear them, I must not be very far._ The thought strangely gave her strength. She dug deeper into the dirt and pushed herself up against the protest of her muscles. With a heave, she turned and grabbed hold of the chain in one hand. Tapping once more into her chi, she found the outpouring eager, almost hungry, and let it flow into the metal.

The links ran orange, to yellow, then white. The metal grew pliable beneath her fingers as the pull of tension started to favor her direction. Encouraged, she took the chain in both hands, pouring out more and more heat till the dried leaves beneath flared with tiny flames. In a final pull, the links finally snapped apart, spewing hot sparks into the surrounding underbrush.

"So this is the power that decimated our summoners in one night...if Konoha hasn't coveted you before, they certainly will now."

Sacora whirled around and hobbled to her feet, clenching fresh fire in her fists. "Don't come any closer."

The shinobi continued pacing about her unperturbed. "Villages have done far worse to hoard people like you. You should be lucky; we are kinder in comparison..."

A breeze blew through the trunks that chilled her to the very bone. The dark corners of the forest suddenly grew darker, and the shadows lengthened till they seemed to shroud even the light of the fires still burning in the distance. As the shinobi's pacing completed a full circuit, a feeling of cold dread seemed to wash through her.

"I'm quite glad you didn't let the Beast take hold of all your senses. Surely, we can talk this through with reason?"

Sacora held the fire steady but felt the resolve slipping from her fists. Somehow his words seemed compelling, but...

 _Bam!_

A sudden weight slammed into her, pushing her forward into the underbrush. She recomposed herself and found Hinata behind her with Byakugan activated, while Kiba and Shino stood facing the shinobi.

"It was a genjutsu," Hinata said apologetically. "An illusion jutsu. I hope I didn't push you too hard..."

The shinobi looked them over and smirked. "Konoha sends children to run its errands now?"

"We gave you guys a hard time back there," Kiba retorted, "so don't get too cocky."

"Sounds like you brats need to be taught a lesson."

"Bring it!"

Without a second thought, they lunged at each other like ferocious dogs. But the hairs on the back of Sacora's neck told her they weren't alone. She pushed past Hinata and leapt in the direction of the incoming shinobi, intercepting him with a whirling kick before he could reach Kiba. As they fell apart, a blurring shape skimmed past him and sank a kunai into his leg, causing him to skid unsteadily when he landed.

"It's a strange sensation, larvae crawling in your wounds," Shino passively remarked, brandishing the bloody kunai. A tiny, wriggling line fell from a drop of blood off the blade, coming to a rest on the tip of his finger. "Have you ever heard of the tropical botflies? I've found that kikaichu larvae are partial to taking nourishment in a similar manner. With the proper amount of chakra, they'll grow rather quickly too."

The shinobi thrust his hands forward and shot out chains from within his sleeves at the three of them. Shino and Hinata dashed away in one direction and Sacora in another, sending the chains out in converging lines. But as Sacora dodged and weaved past the intrusive links, she realized they all eventually came after her; the others were not the target and would only be collateral damage from getting in the way. She stopped fleeing and allowed the chains to latch onto her hands, wincing as they twined and tightened along her arms.

"You promised to help me, Jin She," she ground out as she dug her heels into the dirt. From the direction of the shinobi, the links began to glow with the flow of chakra.

 _And I have not reneged on that promise,_ came the guttural response. _The question is, how will you use it?_

She was biting on her lip so hard that it threatened to draw blood. But at the sudden tremor in the chains, she perked up with hope.

" _Aaaagh_!" The shinobi controlling the chains had fallen to his knees, his wounded leg soaked with blood and brimming with writhing, fat, maggoty shapes. Several fell like plump little berries as they outgrew the wound, shining in the dust with wriggling malice. Consequently, the chakra flow halted, vibrating tensely just less than a foot from her.

Sacora then noticed Kiba's opponent coming within radius of the chains' length, and after quick thought, decided to stop fighting their pull. She relaxed her heels and let the chains yank her away, sending heat through their links as before to make them more pliable, then kicked up to leap above the kneeling shinobi before she could run into him. Using his weight as an anchor, she pivoted her hip to orient her lower body and kicked out a whorl of fire.

The other shinobi jumped back to avoid it, landing with his back against a tree. After returning to the ground, she grabbed the chains and hurled his comrade into him. The momentum pulled her up again in a tilted arc that she rode till she was above the pair of shinobi, then brought her down for a fiery stomp upon the chains. An explosion of wild sparks and fire burst up around them when the flames made contact, searing up the tree in a molten bolt. The last thing she heard was Shino yelling for everyone to jump away before billows of smoke overtook her senses.

Once the worst of it was over, Sacora staggered to her feet, shaking off the hissing chains. She looked about in anticipation of more threats – they had simply been coming one after another the whole night – and was startled by movement and a groan coming from her left. As she turned and locked eyes with the enemy shinobi, he reached into his kunai holster while a blistered hand formed a hand sign. Her foot swept it aside and an ignited fist moved forward, ready to send the finishing blast should the need arise.

"Don't," she started, but never finished. Every instinct within her screamed to stop him before he attempted something new, but the more she looked at him, the more she wondered what he could do. Reluctantly, she let the fire sputter away and dropped her hands to her sides. He tracked her every movement with hostility still shining through his smoke induced tears, but moved no muscle beyond that.

From behind her, the wind that brushed them through the flames carried upon it the sound of new presences–

"Lady Hinata!"

"There you guys are!"

"Just what the _hell_ were you all thinking!?"

Sacora could hardly believe her ears, let alone her eyes when she saw the senseis with another Leaf jonin and a wrinkly little dog coming through the trees. She met the gazes of the bewildered Team Eight before the adults enveloped them, then looked back down at the shinobi. Kurenai's sharp voice scolding the team compelled her to finally leave, and she was rushed at by the unfamiliar jonin and a concerned Asuma-sensei on her way to their circle.

"Sacora! Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she breathed, taking hold of Asuma's proffered arm. A large crackle made her pause and she turned to see the burning branches of the tree tumbling to the ground, right above where she last stood. She hid her face in Asuma's sleeve just before they hit. "I'm fine..."

* * *

 **Notes**

On the conversation Sacora witnessed, I literally just learned about the barrier around the village so I went back and added a bit on it to the last chapter in the conversation between Kurenai and Asuma at the police station.

Jin She has a tricky pronunciation in English as the 'She' part is really hard to describe. My best suggestion, go on google translate, set to translate from English to Chinese (traditional or simplified, doesn't matter) and type in 'gold snake' to listen to the Chinese.

I know Legend of Korra established the origins of bending with Avatar Wan and the Lion Turtles, but I figured that was way back in the Avatar universe's past; besides, the animal legends are still part of the lore and the Wan origin is hardly relevant to this story. For that reason I decided not to touch on it, opting instead to add some lore of my own.

I am aware of the Tailed Beasts' origins as Hagoromo's creations. I think that, technically, they could qualify as 'spirits' according to a being from the spirit world. I didn't have Jin She explain these though, because I didn't want the exchange to drag on too long (hahaha get it? Drag on? Dragon? I know, I'm lame...)

For readers unfamiliar with ATLA: the Avatar is known as the bridge between the mortal and spirit world due to being part spirit themselves. So the humans of the shinobi world are referred to as "friends of the spirits" not only because they used to respect and erect temples for the Biju, but because one of them became friends with the mortal representative (if you will) of the spirits.

Finally, changed sparrowgales to swallowgales because I had the birds mixed up in my head.


	9. Chapter 9

"37.2 degrees...very good." The nurse wiped down the thermometer with the sharp smelling alcohol swabs that always seemed to be close at hand. "Everything looks normal. With luck, the doctor will discharge you later today and you'll be free to go home."

"Thank you," Sacora nodded. Once the nurse was finally gone she fell back into the pillow with a sigh, thinking of how nice it would be to be back out in the world beyond the hospital. She'd been given the promise of discharge twice already, but whatever tests the people here performed seemed to perturb them into extending her stay. The nurses insisted it was because she refused IV treatment, but there was no way she was ever letting a needle close to her skin again.

No, it was something different, and she could tell as she observed the unmarred skin of her hands that it was beyond the scope of what they wanted to discuss within her hearing.

A clatter at the door took her thoughts from that dreary subject and made her sit up. Muffled giggles and shushes gave cause to raise a brow, and an inquisitive pair of eyes met hers a moment later through the window.

" _Kyaaaah_! She's so cute!" a female voice squealed.

"Shut up, Hana!" a boyish one exclaimed. "Ugh, why'd you have to come?"

More muffled deliberations followed before the handle was finally tried. The door pushed open to admit a young woman whose cheeks bore the marks of the Inuzuka clan, followed by a frazzled looking Kiba who was dressed down today in a simple hooded jacket. In his arms was a brightly colored box wrapped with a twine bow.

"Hi," the young woman greeted. "Hope it's okay for us to come in?"

"Oh, it's fine," Sacora assured her, watching them curiously as they approached her bed.

"I'm Hana," she introduced herself, holding out her hand for a shake. "Kiba's older sister."

Sacora wrapped her hand meekly about Hana's. "I'm Sacora. It's nice to meet you."

After the withdrawing of hands, Hana pulled up a chair to the bedside and plopped down. "So! How've you been holding up? Has your hospital stay been comfortable?"

"I've been all right," Sacora replied, "though I wish they'd let me out sooner."

"Oh, I get you. Can't stand being in one place for too long." Hana noticed her little brother still brooding to himself and motioned impatiently for him to come closer. "Are you frozen or what? You don't just buy presents for people and not give it to them when you visit!"

"I-I was going to!" he protested, shooting his sister an annoyed look as he came up to Sacora. "God, you're so pushy..." He brought out the box and thrust it in her direction, eyes aimed down at the bed linens. "Here...thought you might like some candy."

"'Cuz fruit's not cool, apparently," Hana snorted.

"Who the heck wants fruit when they're in a hospital, Hana?"

Sacora accepted the box in her lap with a smile. "Thank you. Where's Akamaru?" she asked, noticing the lack of a furry white head sticking out from his jacket.

"I had to leave him home. Dogs aren't allowed at the hospital."

"Aw...well, how are Shino and Hinata?"

"They're okay," Kiba shrugged. "Just super grounded right now."

She frowned. "Grounded...?"

"Their parents are keeping them inside as punishment," he clarified.

"Gee, I wonder why." Hana aimed a pointed look at Kiba. "I know you're usually obstinate, but I didn't think you'd drag your teammates with you. Glad to see chivalry isn't dead, though," she finished with a wink at Sacora.

" _Hana_!"

Sacora had a chuckle at Kiba's expense even if she didn't entirely understand the point of Hana's teasing. She waited for the siblings' newest quarrel to run its course before opening up the box of sweets, revealing an array of chewy confections shaped like various fruits. "Ooh, they look good! Here, share some with me." That seemed to break the ice for Kiba and he eagerly sat on the bed's edge to pluck some of the colorful candy for himself.

A hint of bandage peeped through Kiba's sleeve when his hand retreated from the box. Sacora paused before she could eat her own candy and lowered it from her mouth. "Were you injured badly?" she asked.

"What? Nah," he dismissed with a wave. "Just a few scratches, nothing serious."

"Then Shino and Hinata..."

"They're fine!" he assured her. "They barely fought up close. Not like I did," he boasted. "I went toe to toe with that one guy, remember?"

Sacora nodded and plopped the candy into her mouth, albeit with a troubled expression. Seeing it, Hana sighed and said, "My brother's not the most sensitive person and says the stupidest things sometimes..."

"Hey!"

"...but none of what happened was your fault," she continued. "I don't know why those shinobi kidnapped you, but whatever the reason, it's on them. Some spoiled brats risking their lives was hardly under your control, either."

"I know," Sacora mumbled, and gave Hana a small smile. "Thank you."

"And hey, you totally beat their asses at the end," Kiba added. "When did you get so good? I hope you weren't just pretending when we sparred," he said with a pointed look.

Sacora almost choked on her candy at the question. "Well, uh..."

The door handle turned again, causing Kiba to go quiet when they saw it was Kurenai stepping into the room. Sacora sat straighter without realizing it and cleared her throat. "Good morning, Kurenai-sensei."

The kunoichi nodded at her and looked over to Kiba. "Nice to see you again, Hana," she smiled at his sister. "I didn't realize the two of you were visiting."

"Only because Mom thought it was fair," Hana explained. "With supervision, of course."

"I can imagine. Well," Kurenai huffed, "if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to have a word with Sacora in private."

Hana nodded. "We were almost leaving anyway." She rose and ushered her brother out of the room, but allowed him to say his goodbyes first.

"I'll see you in training in a few days," Kurenai called after Kiba. Once the siblings had finally left, she turned to Sacora with a sympathetic smile.

* * *

 _Oh boy. I have no idea how to start this._

So many things had piled onto the situation since they returned. There was Inoichi, telling her they'd missed the recent moon to test the scroll. There was Asuma, getting back to her on her team's escort mission and discovering that their client was not a native of that village at all. There were the ones who had gone on the mission, raising questions as to how the girl could've done so much damage when Iruka's observations showed her barely capable of beating basic maneuvers.

And then there were the doctors and medical staff, baffled at the fact that she had escaped the situation completely unscathed; Team Eight had to undergo smoke inhalation treatment and hospitalization to monitor vital levels, whereas Sacora had literally _nothing_ wrong with her aside from bruises and a sprained ankle. The needles they'd pulled out of her – "Enough barbiturates to sink an elephant," one of the lab techs put it. Yet bloodwork done the night of showed almost no trace.

"Glad to see you're doing better." _Yes, let's stick to that._ She slid into Hana's chair for good measure. "I know it's been busy, but it's good to see you again."

"It's good to see you too," Sacora returned, setting aside the candy box on a table.

Kurenai noticed it and smiled. "Kiba's getting pretty generous these days. Not a bad trait to have."

"He does seem more likeable now," Sacora agreed.

Kurenai chuckled and almost made another remark about Kiba, but the small talk couldn't go on forever. "So..." She shifted in her seat. "About that night."

The light in Sacora's eyes fled almost instantly. "Yes?"

"I hate to bring it up, but there a few things I need to know. Please bear with me." When the girl gave a reluctant nod, Kurenai asked in the gentlest tone possible, "How did it happen?"

Sacora looked down at her hands. "I remember being offered tea at the market..."

"By whom?"

"Mr. Teiji. He's an old man I see in the village sometimes," she explained. "After that, I woke up in a cart..."

Kurenai listened to her recount the witnessing of a murder and getting forcefully sedated, stomach churning all the while. Beyond that, however, the girl started trailing off. "Team Eight is telling me more than that," Kurenai pointed out when no further information was forthcoming. "If there's anything else, I need to know – for your own good. Your safety depends on it, Sacora."

She could see conflict brewing in those frightened young eyes. The hands, too, wrung themselves together as if to wrestle with thoughts racing in the head. "I had help," she said at last.

"From who?"

Sacora opened and closed her mouth in vain, until at last she spat it out like a bad apple. "From a dragon!"

Stunned silence dominated the room for a few seconds. "A what?" Kurenai asked.

"W-when I came here," she stammered, "the cult that was sacrificing me – only, they weren't sacrificing me – they were actually making me into a...a vessel–"

Kurenai tried to keep her expression from changing too quickly. "Go on," she coaxed as calmly as she could.

"When that happened, I..." Sacora swallowed. "Jin She – that's its name – Jin She...or well, I...killed them all."

The news hit her like a wall of bricks. "Why did you never tell us this?" Kurenai asked.

"I didn't know about it," she protested. "Not until...recently." Sacora looked back down at her hands and pressed the thumbs together. "When I woke up again, I...I was scared...I tried to escape, but I couldn't, and..." Tears rimmed the corners of her eyes. "Jin She spoke to me. It told me that it could help. And then it showed me how it helped me before, with the cult..."

"And then?"

"I agreed." She sniffed. "When I started to fight, it was...I almost think it's how ninjas feel when they use chakra," she remarked. "It was very...wild."

Kurenai nodded absentmindedly, sinking back into her seat full of trepidation. _This...this changes everything._ Her head spun as she struggled to think of what this 'Jin She' was supposed to be. _Another Tailed Beast? But it doesn't sound like one. Are there other such creatures beyond the Tailed Beasts?_ And what if people beyond the cult knew about it? Other groups? Villages? But she needn't even speculate on outside attention. The Hokage's outlook on Sacora and the way Konoha handled her would fundamentally change.

"Kurenai?" Two fat drops streamed down the young girl's cheeks. "What's going to happen to me?"

Without thinking, she wrapped a hand around Sacora's. "Shh...nothing bad will happen," she said comfortingly. "Now, listen to me...you cannot tell anyone else about this. You haven't, have you?" When the girl shook her head, Kurenai nodded. "Good. Because from now on, you cannot trust people in the village so easily anymore. And by that, I mean _all_ of them, aside from me and other ninja of jonin rank."

Sacora seemed taken aback by this requirement. "Not even a chunin, like Iruka-sensei?"

"There's a reason why it's so difficult to become a jonin," Kurenai put in. "Almost all of us make it only by being appointed by the Hokage, even though there's an exam."

"But the villagers..."

Kurenai shook her head. "People from other towns come to Konoha daily for trade. It can't be guaranteed that there isn't at least one enemy among them. In fact, it's likely this Mr. Teiji was one of the–"

"I-impossible," Sacora protested. "He can barely walk with a cane! And his grandchildren are chunin here, why would he?"

 _By god...she's too naive..._ it was almost painful to see. "When you met him, did he ask you more questions than usual, or take any special interest in you?"

"Just normal questions anyone would ask," Sacora insisted. "He wanted to know if I'd moved in from another village, and thought I was a genin shadowing you before getting a team–"

Kurenai held up an interrupting hand. "Hidden villages don't accept ninja from other villages, regardless of rank. That's an important law to forget, for someone who's lived in one long enough to see grandchildren become chunin. And maybe he's a forgetful old man," she interjected before Sacora could speak, "but that doesn't mean he wasn't working for the cult. He could have been leading them to you with such questions, knowing you wouldn't understand they were wrong. He could even have been a shinobi in disguise with the help of the transformation technique."

Sacora's face went pale. "That's...possible?"

"Unfortunately, it is. Look, there's just..." Kurenai sighed. "There's many techniques shinobi are capable of. Some you won't even be aware of until it's too late. You're a target of the cult because of Jin She; the next chance you take might be the one that ends your life." _Or worse_ , but she seemed scared enough already that Kurenai stopped the doomsaying there. "I'm so sorry it has to come to this. Please understand, Sacora..." She grasped the child's hand again. "This is only to protect you."

Sacora's face seemed so lost, Kurenai wondered if her reciprocal hand squeeze was only out of reflex. She searched her mind for other words to say, anything to make the ordeal seem less daunting...but in the end, she figured it was best if Sacora came to terms with it herself.

Rising from the chair, Kurenai withdrew her hand to pat the girl comfortingly on the shoulder. "I've other things to attend to, but I'll see if I can't convince the doctors to let you out sooner. Once they do, I'll scrape together some yakisoba with extra pickled ginger and tonkatsu for dinner." She paused a bit, then added, "You'll be okay, I promise."

The only response given for that was a faint nod. When Kurenai finally exited to the hallway, she looked back through the glass and saw Sacora huddled beneath the blankets, presumably for a nap. Try as she might, her heart sank at the pitiful sight. _I hope I wasn't too hard on her..._ But she'd have to know eventually, right? What other choice would she have if she wanted to survive in this chaotic world?

* * *

"Sup, Shino? How's freedom treating ya?"

"Not that differently." He pushed his glasses up with a finger. "I took the time to reflect on what happened and replenish my kikaichu; a lot of larvae were lost during the fight and some beetles succumbed to heat damage, so I had to add to the breeding population to bring their numbers back up."

Kiba pulled a face. "Right, whatever floats your boat..."

Hinata joined them at the training grounds a moment later with a bashful wave. "I hope everyone is feeling better?"

"Hah, I was never _not_ better," Kiba declared smugly, much to Shino's thinly veiled disgust. "But anyways...since we're here now, whaddyou guys think? Are we in trouble with Kurenai-sensei too?"

Shino crossed his arms. "Seems likely. After all, we disobeyed orders."

"You don't think she'll spend the rest of training with a lecture?" Kiba asked.

Hinata shrugged. "Maybe..."

"Or give us nothing but D-rank missions for the next few months," Shino put in.

Kiba scowled at that. "Eugh, I hope not...but nah, doesn't sound like she called us here for that. My bet's on a lecture," he decided. "I don't see anything else 'important' she's gotta tell us other than another long lecture."

With that prospect fresh in their minds, the day looked to be an unpleasant one indeed. Kurenai's arrival only served to dampen it further, and they shrank back together instinctively from the stern expression she wore on her face.

"Ah, you're early," she remarked. "Good." Her hands moved down to her hips, another bad sign to tick off the list. "Now, I'm sure you've all been sufficiently punished by your families so I'm not going to beat that dead horse today. But if you're expecting me not to take action of my own, you're sorely mistaken."

"Yes, sensei," they chimed in miserable unison.

"You're lucky the stunt you pulled didn't have a negative impact on the mission," she went on. "Even if it started with good intentions, there were many ways it could have gone wrong. Missions of that magnitude are simply no place for genin, only jonin and chunin; if you feel that you can't respect this rule and will continue to violate it in the future, I'm more than happy to give you back to the Academy..."

Their faces paled and mouths opened in preparation for protest.

"...or sign you up for the chunin exams."

"Sensei, _please_ , we won't – wait...what?" Kiba asked.

"Did I stutter?"

"N-no, sensei!" Hinata shook her head.

Shino adjusted his glasses for the umpteenth time. "But aren't we still too green to be considered?"

She smirked at their discomfiture and crossed her arms. "Your actions that night didn't scream green to me. Well, sure, you weren't supposed to sneak off on your own...but, Kiba–"

He straightened to attention.

"–your tracking skills brought you the closest to Sacora than any of our teams did. Shino, you were able to think critically and use your beetles to the utmost advantage in the thick of battle. And Hinata, you provided excellent support and prevented Sacora from falling under genjutsu in the nick of time. Together," she gestured at the three of them, "you formed coherent plans under duress, avoided detection by a whole host of tracking nin, and risked your lives to save a comrade."

They relaxed their postures when she finished speaking. "Well, when you put it that way," Kiba chuckled sheepishly.

"It's your decision, of course," Kurenai added. "If you don't feel ready, you're always welcome to undergo more D-rank missions with me–"

" _No_! No, we're ready," Kiba interrupted. "Right, guys?"

Hinata shared a glance with Shino before the both of them nodded their agreement.

Kurenai flicked a hand at them, launching three papers through the air that they deftly caught. "Sign up's in a week; just have those filled before you turn them in at the Academy. I'll still be here for whoever decides to bail out," she teased. "But I know you won't disappoint."

"Thanks, sensei!"

"W-we won't let you down!"

"We'll certainly perform at our best."

Kurenai basked in their optimism with a satisfied smile. "Now that that's out of the way, I actually have you on for a D-rank so let's roll up our sleeves and get to some good ol' fashioned garden weeding!"

"Awww..."

* * *

 **Notes**

Degrees in Celsius

Hidden villages having a born citizen only policy for ninjas is an educated guess, as I think there would be a huge question of loyalty involved. It also doesn't seem like there are many at the series' start who moved between villages like you'd move to a different city. Obviously there might have been some exceptions, or the case of defectors/spies, but for the most part I think this policy would hold true.


End file.
